KNOXVILLE – Another Tennessee women’s basketball player will be entering the transfer portal, bound for somewhere else.
Forward Mimi Collins, who just finished her freshman season, intends to leave UT. Her father, Tank, confirmed Collins’ decision Thursday night, indicating there were a lot of factors involved.
Sophomore point guard Evina Westbrook preceded Collins in the portal after Tennessee’s tumultuous 19-13 season resulted in head coach Holly Warlick being fired and replaced by Missouri State’s Kellie Harper, another former Lady Vols point guard.
Westbrook, UT’s leading scorer last season at 14.9 points per game, opted to transfer after criticizing the coaching staff following an 89-77 season-ending loss to UCLA in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Collins’ decision might have reflected, to some degree, her support for Warlick. Collins was an outspoken advocate for her coach even before arriving on campus.
The 6-foot-3 Collins played in all 32 games last season, averaging 5.5 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. She was starting by season’s end and scored 14 points in the season finale against UCLA. Despite being a freshman, she acted more like a senior, arranging for male practice players to help her work extra on her defense during the season. She tended to her other skills in a similar fashion.
“I just got in the gym and worked hard,” she said. “My thing was coming in and working hard and doing what needed to be done.”
UT’s roster has been in flux since the season’s end. Along with the two players transferring, the Lady Vols have added signee Jessie Rennie, a 5-6 freshman guard from Australia. Graduate transfer Lou Brown also was awarded an extra season of eligibility by the NCAA after missing last season with a knee injury.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri who covered University of Tennessee athletics for the Knoxville News Sentinel from 1988-2019. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com