Isaiah Collier was picked No. 29 in the 2024 NBA draft. That is not where he expected to end up. Collier began the 2023-2024 college basketball season at USC as a projected top-10 NBA draft pick. For some analysts, Collier was top-five material with a chance to rise to the top three. When Collier dominated Kansas State in the season opener on November 6, everything seemed possible for him and USC. It’s true that Collier’s January injury limited his development and hurt the Trojans last season, but even before that injury, USC had already torched its chances of being an at-large team in the NCAA Tournament. The season had already gone horribly wrong before Collier got hurt. Andy Enfield, who did a good job as USC head coach over the full length of his decade-long tenure, simply could not put the pieces together for more than a few games (Kansas State, the Arizona home game, and a few select others) in his last USC season. Collier did not hide from that truth when talking to Marc Spears of Andscape:
“The most challenging part of this was definitely losing,” Collier said. “Nobody wants to lose. But we learned a lot from it, especially when I got hurt. I sat down and improved as a player later on in the season. It definitely helped me a lot, too.
“College was definitely hard. I learned a lot. I had to learn a different kind of game. I’m just trying to move up on to the next level. I know it’s going to be even harder.
“There have been a couple challenges that I’ve faced. It’s always a learning process for me. Maybe it was a good thing that I went through with it. I can improve on it later on. I’m just taking it day by day in my career.”
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