bball recruit: a nice story on Collin Dennis

[Guest BasketBull.]

Guard credited with critical assist

star-telegram.com

By Nathan Sanders

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Tue, Feb. 04, 2003

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS - Collin Dennis makes basketball look easy.

For Richland's gifted junior guard, the bouncing ball seems like a yo-yo on an invisible string. He glides through crowds like he's wearing Rollerblades while everyone around him is running in sand. Then every so often, he'll pull up and -- ho, hum -- rip the net with another effortless 3-point shot.

"He very seldom shoots a shot you think he's going to miss," Richland coach Richard Bacon said.

Easy? Dennis shakes his head. He knows it's an illusion created by hard work. But he'll never forget the day when dominating his opponent was a little too easy.

Unusually easy.

Frighteningly easy.

Sept. 22, 2000, was Carol Dennis' birthday, but it started out like virtually every other weekday afternoon. Her husband, Warren, came home from work and found 14-year-old Collin waiting beneath the basketball goal in the driveway. Warren often wouldn't even have time to take off his tie. Time to play.

Since Collin was 2, Warren had been sculpting his son into a polished player. Dribbling. Proper defense. Shooting jumpers over a broom Warren held in front of Collin's face. And, of course, father vs. son in one-on-one.

In the early days, Warren -- who played at Central Missouri State in the late 1970s -- dominated. But Collin was closing the gap, and on this September day he was comfortably in command. Too comfortably.

"I remember he got real tired," Collin said. "He said, 'OK, we'll play one more game,' but I noticed he wasn't moving around like he should, so then I ended the game pretty fast. ... I would just go right by him. I was like, 'What's going on?'"

After resting in the garage for about 30 minutes, Warren headed for the bedroom. He didn't make it that far. Instead, he fell unconscious to the laundry-room floor. He was having a heart attack at 45. And his family saw it all.

A few minutes later, Warren's seizures stopped. He looked up at Collin and Carol and asked, "What am I doing on the floor?" He asked them to help him to bed so he could sleep it off. But Collin would have none of that. He insisted that they call an ambulance.

"I saw him shaking, and his eyes were in the back of his head," Collin said. "You don't just sleep that off."

Shortly after the ambulance picked him up, Warren suffered a severe stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body. He spent the next two months in the hospital. He suffered memory loss and needed extensive rehabilitation and speech therapy. Doctors said if Collin hadn't insisted on calling 911 that day, Warren wouldn't have lived through the night.

"He's the one that saved my life," Warren said.

Warren returned home in November 2000. That same month, Collin became the only freshman to start for Bacon in his 21 years of coaching, scoring 17 second-half points in a season-opening victory over Dallas Spruce.

Collin said he doesn't really talk about his father's stroke that much. Warren said his son "holds a lot of things inside." It's a practice Collin also puts to use in basketball.

Away from the game, Collin Dennis is a polite, fun-loving 17-year-old who adores his mother. Once game time comes, however, he becomes a 6-foot-2 basketball cyborg, motoring down the court with the same stoic expression on his face. His intensity is sky-high, and his focus is unwavering.

"He doesn't even wave to me, and I'm Mama," Carol said.

But this cyborg does have a history of blowing a fuse. He earned so many technical fouls in his first two seasons that teammates started calling him "Rasheed Wallace." Then there are what Bacon calls "retaliation fouls."

"It's like you get hit so hard shooting the ball and the referee doesn't call it that you want to see if he can blow his whistle, so you're going to slap somebody," said Bacon, who played at Grand Canyon University. "I did that at times. But what I always kept in perspective is I wanted to play more than I wanted to sit."

Collin is learning that perspective as well, and the Rebels are reaping the benefits. Led by Collin's 24.2 points per game, Richland (20-9, 8-3 in District 6-4A) stands within reach of its first playoff berth since 1994-95. Colleges including Oklahoma and North Carolina are already showing interest.

"He's the engine to this team," junior forward Anthony Jones said. "Without the engine, the car can't run."

Every once in a while, Collin gets a basketball tuneup from his father, who has almost completely recovered from the stroke 28 1/2 months later. But the one-on-one battles of old haven't returned yet.

"We've played a couple of games, but it's not really the same," said Collin, the MVP of this season's McDonald's Hoopfest in Dallas. "I don't want him to go too hard."

After all, for Collin, easy does it.

[Velcro]

If i remember right, they did get their playoff birth, and did exceptionally well.  I think they won their district.

[Papa_Bull]

Thanks for the story.

[beastiebull]

6'2?  Wow, Brian Swift with a temper.  Can't wait.

[Velcro]

swift is 5'10 and can't play defense worth a ****, reggie kohn was better with 2 broken legs.

[Guest S.  Bien]

swift is 5'10 and can't play defense worth a ****, reggie kohn was better with 2 broken legs.

I wouldn't go that far with Kohn.  Neither provide stellar defense at the point.  Also, its a stretch to say that Swift is 5-10.  He might be 5-9 on a good day, but I would say closer to 5-8.  Dennis is a better all-around player than those two in high school already.

[bulls96go]

hope he can control his temper

[bullwark]

Can't wait to see the "cyborg" in a Bulls Uni taking down Big East opponents, nice story.

[RHBullsFan]

Colleges including Oklahoma and North Carolina are already showing interest.

Wow, for us to secure players that are garnishing attention from THESE types of school really says something about our recruiting.

[Markeymark]

I would hesitate to slap any labels such as "better all-around player" on Dennis until he gets here and we see him in action against D-1 level players. Most of these kids get glowing reviews and are the subject of an incredible level of hype and hyperbole. Swifty was getting a lot of pub in Ohio in his Senior year of HS and Kohn was considered one of the top PG's in the state coming out of HS. So until he gets here and we can see him play, it's just a case of comparing one guy's pub versus another.