Kansas No. 1 by Sports Illustrated, Collins Featured on Cover

Nov. 20, 2009

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas senior Sherron Collins is featured on the 2009-10 College Basketball Preview Issue cover of Sports Illustrated (SI), released this week.

Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Luke Winn provided the preview on Kansas for the 2009-10 season. Winn writes: The recruiting classes of 2006 and ’07 brought forth a bumper crop of point guards: Nine—Ty Lawson, Javaris Crittenton, Mike Conley Jr., D.J. Augustin, Stephen Curry, O.J. Mayo, Derrick Rose, Jonny Flynn and Jeff Teague—­became first-round NBA draft picks. Only two of ­Scout.com’s five-star points from those years haven’t matriculated from college to the NBA: Florida’s Nick Calathes, because he opted to play in Greece this year, and Kansas’s Sherron Collins, because he’s still in college. “I look at those class lists all the time,” says Collins, who was the ­second-rated floor general in the ’06 cohort, “and I know I’m the only one left.”

Also included in the SI preview issue is a “Five Minute Guide” for the upcoming season. In that, Collins and Kansas junior center Cole Aldrich are named to the All-Americas First Team, while KU senior women’s basketball player Danielle McCray is named to the women’s All-Americas Third Team.

This marks the 15th time Kansas men’s basketball has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The last time was two SI covers featuring Mario Chalmers in April 2008. One was from his famous shot that tied the Memphis game in the 2008 NCAA National Championship and the other was the SI Commemorative Issue with Chalmers celebrating from the same contest.