City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Matt Collier first heard about the Queens College head coaching vacancy in February. For the Drexel assistant and Queens native, it seemed like it was destined to be his first head coaching job.

It was no overnight process. Through a few rounds of interviews and weeding out of other candidates, Collier had to show the New York City school he was the right person for the job, and he also had to show patience.

More than three months after learning of the opening, Collier met with Queens College Athletic Director China Jude at a Westin right outside the Big Apple on the evening of June 2. At the end of a lengthy conversation, Collier was offered the job.

For such a long process, his response was instantaneous.

“Within 30 seconds, I accepted,” Collier said Wednesday in a phone interview.

Collier, who spent the last 13 seasons as an assistant coach, now has his own program.

“After being an assistant coach for so many years, the dream is to become a head coach eventually,” he said. “It attracted me because growing up in Queens, I know the school, I know what types of kids that are going to the school. And it’s also in line with my coaching path and my philosophy that has been at schools with high academic students.”

Former Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint was an instrumental part of Collier’s career. Collier was the head manager at UMass, where Flint coached from 1996-2001. Collier graduated in 2001 and followed Flint to West Philadelphia to become Drexel’s coordinator of operations for three years.

From there, Collier went to Howard University in Washington, D.C. where he was an assistant coach from 2005-10. He returned to the Dragons bench for the 2010-11 season in a larger role on Flint’s staff and played a key role in recruiting.

For the second time in his career, Collier will be separated from Flint at Queens College, but he was one of the people he relied heavily on during the interview process. Collier said he’s reached out to a handful of others in the coaching industry about the job and what to expect moving forward. That list included Queens College women’s coach Elizabeth Naumovski, who has led the Knights to back-to-back East Coast Conference Tournament titles in the last two seasons.

“The people I have reached out to are a lot of head coaches, Division-II head coaches and those who have taken a similar path of me from Division-I assistant to Division-II head coach,” Collier said. “They’re telling me things to look out for and things I may not know. Because I don’t think I know everything for sure. I’m confident in what I do know, but I’m aware of what I don’t know.”

Collier inherits a program that did not have a clean break with its former coach, Darryl Jacobs. The New York Daily News reported in late February there was a player revolt against Jacobs because of “abusive behavior" and the coach was relieved of his duties before season’s end.

Collier, who grew up about 25 minutes from his new office, is starting a new chapter for the Knights, who have combined to go 26-53 in the last three seasons. Queens currently has a roster of 13 players, 11 of which are juniors and many of which have transferred from junior college.

The coach said he is already is in the process of getting to know his current roster, and he is preparing to make hires for his staff and hit the recruiting trail soon. He wants to get things done in a timely fashion, but Collier has learned everything does not happen in an instant.

“I’m hoping to meet with all the players by the end of the week," he said. "When you take over a program you have to recruit the returners and get them on board in what you’re doing, establish a firm relationship outside of basketball and get that trust. Everything needs to be addressed: scheduling, budgeting, recruiting of course – we still have a few roster spots. We’re going to do it with a sense of urgency, but we’re going to make the right decisions.”