Providence News, Ray Mernagh

NBE STAFF SUPPORT SERIES: CARY COLLINS, PROVIDENCE

by RAY MERNAGH

A director of basketball operations (DOBO) job is usually a way for someone to break into the coaching business at the college level, often after either playing or serving as a student manager. For the most part, that still holds true at all levels of college basketball, although there’s a big difference at the highest level when it comes to compensation. DOBO’s in the Big East are going to be paid, minimum, about thirty grand more a year than a full time assistant at the mid-major level (DOBO’s at the mid-major level are woefully underpaid). But almost all DOBO’s are still taking the job with the hope of moving up to a full time assistant’s job at some point.

Cary Collins of Providence isn’t your typical DOBO — maybe that’s why his official title is COBO (coordinator of basketball operations). Then again not a lot of DOBO’s, or head coaches for that matter, count golfers like Fred Couples, Natalie Gulbis and Michelle Wie as good friends. “My skills are in people relations and organizing,” says Collins, who admits he has no interest in coaching. Those people skills, along with an encyclopedic knowledge of golf, allowed Collins to spend eleven years traveling the globe as he worked for both PGA Tour Productions and ESPN.

Before Collins began his career in production/golf, the Le Mars, Iowa native spent seven years as a manager for Dr. Tom Davis’ teams at the University of Iowa. Collins met his current boss Keno Davis during this time. Both Keno Davis and Collins were “unofficial” staff members for Dr. Tom prior to Keno leaving to work for Bruce Pearl at Southern Indiana in 1995. While at Iowa, Collins would work different golf tournaments any chance he got. “I worked the Ben Hogan Tour events whenever they came close by,” says Collins, “and then when it became the Nike Tour I worked those events too.” Along the way Collins, always a net-worker, kept making contacts with operations people, rules committee people, anybody he met at the different events he worked.

PGA Tour Productions hired Collins out of Iowa and he spent four years as a production assistant and scheduler, before being promoted to a desk job doing post-production work. By 2001, Collins was missing life on the road and jumped at the opportunity to work for ESPN as a production assistant. He worked live events, helping the announcers in the booth. Collins admits he had absolutely no experience in production work but got hired for both positions because he simply knew the game. “I was hired because I had great golf knowledge,” says Collins. Knowledge that benefited announcers like Mike Tirico and Andy North each week when Collins would point out some little known fact to them during a telecast. Eventually, because he did his job so well, Collins was promoted again and in his last three years at ESPN he was a features producer. So anytime you saw the little segments on Arnold Palmer or Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus during an event, chances are that Collins had a lot to do with it. Collins had done all he wanted to do with golf except for one thing: Work the British Open.

In fact, he almost took a job with Dr. Tom again when Davis was hired to coach at Drake, but some administrative decisions put the kibosh on the reunion. Then, after finally working a British Open, Collins got a call from his old friend Keno Davis. “He told me something might be happening,” says Collins, “and asked if I’d be interested in going to Providence with him.” Collins was definitely interested in the idea of helping his friend bring the Providence program back to the heights it once enjoyed and accepted the offer.

These days Collins basically runs the day to day organization that is Providence basketball. Fundraiser in town or out of town that needs a staff member present? Collins will set that up. Scheduling travel for next season? Collins works on a bit of it every day. Basketball camps are a huge part of his job, as well as scheduling practice times and facilities and helping the team’s managers and video personnel stay on top of their work. Collins also spends part of each day reaching out to past players in the program, letting them know that they’re welcome on campus, at practices and games (something that apparently had stopped in the past few years).

Collins is also underpaid — he should get another salary as a PR guy.

Collins, in the brief time that we talked, filled me in on all the work being done to help the program compete at the highest level. He explained the three-phased renovation to Alumni Hall, built in 1952, in detail. Close to completion, the result of the renovation will be a state of the art practice facility. It will feature three full-court gyms, new floors and ceilings, AC for the summertime camps, plus plenty of room behind the baselines (something the brand new box-like practice facilities often don’t have). Providence also has brand new basketball offices, rooms that NBA scouts marvel at when they come through. And if you’ve got to play off-campus, as the Friars do, the $85 million in renovations to the Dunk can’t hurt. It’s now plush enough that NBA players used to the old “Dump” were left slack-jawed by the improvement during a preseason game at the facility. “I helped host the Cavs and Celtics and they couldn’t believe how nice the updates were,” says Collins, “one player’s comment was ‘dang, Providence is big-time now.’” Collins says everyone has been blown away by the efforts of Father Brian Shanley, Providence’s new President, and his commitment to athletics, especially to bringing big-time basketball back on campus.

How about the fact that the Friars have a training room that’s brand new with both hot and cold tubs and a SwimEx pool — a perk usually reserved for professional franchises. All this, plus a training table, weight room, and separate private room for players all under the same roof — part of a two-level, $16 million dollar rec center right on campus. Friar players have to walk about 200 steps to any of this from their locker room, while their longest walk to any class is five minutes tops. “It makes life a lot easier for them,” says Collins.

One can’t help but think having a guy like Collins around makes life a little bit easier for everyone at Providence.

Not to mention he can probably arrange a pretty good tee time.

In fact, give him a little time and he can probably put together an unbelievable foursome for you.

For more of our summer coverage of the Friars, see our Providence Summer Report.