Cincinnati’s rebuild under Jerrod Calhoun has plenty of new faces, but one addition sits above the rest: MJ Collins Jr.
That’s not a knock on the rest of the transfer haul. The Bearcats brought in size, scoring and experience, and they needed all of it after a roster overhaul that left major holes everywhere. But if Collins is cleared to play, he becomes the piece that can change the whole feel of this team.
The Bearcats are coming off another frustrating stretch in a program that once stacked up nine straight NCAA Tournament trips under Mick Cronin before he left for UCLA right before the pandemic. Seven years have passed since Cincinnati last danced, and the last five seasons under Wes Miller never quite matched the talent on hand. Miller’s final team tied for seventh in the Big 12 but still finished 18-15, a record that fell short of expectations.
Now Calhoun steps in for his first power conference job after winning at Youngstown State and Utah State. The task is simple to describe and hard to pull off: rebuild fast, and rebuild well. Cincinnati lost a long list of contributors, including Jalen Celestine, Day Day Thomas and Sencire Harris.
The new roster does have real firepower. Riley Allenspach arrives from George Mason as a 6-11 center.
Tyler Tejada brings the kind of backcourt production that turned heads at Towson. Tylen Riley, coming over from Tulsa, and Myles Colvin, who arrives from Wake Forest, are both guards expected to see major minutes.
Calhoun also dipped into Utah State’s roster, and that group includes the player who matters most.
Collins is a 6-4 guard from South Carolina with a résumé that already stretches across several stops. He started at Virginia Tech as an underclassman, spent one season at Vanderbilt, and then broke out last year for Calhoun at Utah State. In that system, he averaged 17.5 points per game, shot 36% from 3 and hit 62% of his attempts inside the arc.
What makes Collins so valuable is the mix. He has power conference experience, and he already knows what Calhoun wants to do. That gives him a head start over most transfer newcomers, and it makes him the most important guard on the roster by a clear margin.
The catch is that his availability is not settled. Collins was ruled eligible and then another ruling changed that, so he is still waiting to find out whether he’ll be on the floor for Cincinnati in the coming months.
Even without him, Calhoun assembled an impressive group in one offseason, and that matters for any first-year coach. But the Big 12 will demand more than a talented collection of names. Cincinnati could still be a tournament team and end its long drought without Collins, yet having him would give the Bearcats a major boost as Calhoun begins putting his system in place.
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