First Blue Devil and first Jayhawk player to receive NJCAA’s most prestigious award
by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
The best player in NJCAA Division II women’s basketball was not a starter.
The first Kansas City Kansas Community College player to be named NJCAA DII Player of the Year, Nija Collier is also the first Jayhawk Conference player to receive the NJCAA’s most prestigious award.
She also heads the NJCAA All-American first team – and yet she started only five games on the Blue Devils’ road to KCKCC’s second NJCAA National Championship in four years.
“We realized last year that things worked better with her coming off the bench,” coach Joe McKinstry said. “She started a few times (7) but didn’t play well or got into foul trouble. Also, it was to our advantage. With her energy and effort, it was hard for a tired first-team player or a second-teamer to match her energy level. We used it as a great asset because she was a hard matchup for other teams.”
“It really didn’t affect me much,” Collier said, “I didn’t start last year and didn’t expect to this year. It really didn’t matter as long as I was helping my team win. I knew I had a role to fill and if it meant coming off the bench so be it.”
“Not one time did she come to me and asked why much less complained about coming off the bench,” McKinstry said. “I think that speaks volumes to her desire to do what the team needed and to play hard regardless of the situation.”
“I couldn’t be more happy or blessed, especially when I think about the opportunity to play for this team and this program and for us to have the success that we did this year,” said Collier, who was joined on the 2019 All-America team by teammate Kisi Young, a second-team selection. It’s the first time KCKCC has had two All-Americans in one season.
The MVP of the national tournament, Collier was also the KJCCC Player of the Year, a two-time national Player of the Week and six-time KJCCC Player of the Week. She’s the sixth KCKCC first team All-American joining Aneta Kausaite, Jurgita Kausaite, Stephanie Brown, Cierra Gaines and Cheyenne North.
Heavily recruited out of Roseville, Michigan, just outside Detroit, KCKCC can thank the college’s colors for helping attract Collier.
“It was pretty simple,” she said. “The assistant coach (Chamissa Anderson) was from Detroit and saw me play in high school and invited me for a visit. I lived in Michigan so long I wasn’t interested in Michigan schools.
“When I came for the visit, I saw the school colors were red, white and blue, the same as my AAU team. My AAU coach, Coach Robinson, taught me everything I know about basketball from the seventh grade. He told me I could shoot when I didn’t think I could. He passed away and I still miss him. This sounds silly but I came because of the colors. It was kind of a sign to come here.”
The Blue Devils were 22-11 in Collier’s first season with all 11 losses to ranked teams.
“Playing basketball here was so different,” she said. “We were a good team but we struggled. We could have been better but we beat ourselves. We knew we were talented but were not showing it. This year, we had an entirely different mindset and set goals of winning the conference, the region tournament and the national tournament.”
The goals were reached but not without hard work.
“The practices weren’t easy; we practiced hard and we complained a lot,” Collier said. “Every day began with the same things, a lot of running and a lot of fundamentals every day. But we knew that it would make us better and we were able to translate our conditioning to games and it paid off.”
Fast-breaking on every possession, the better conditioned Blue Devils scored the most regular season points in the nation (89.1 per game) and outscored foes by 26 points a game.
Collier led the way with 17.3 points and 9.7 rebounds and shooting 58.5 percent from the field. And she did not load up against weaker teams. In three games against nationally ranked Johnson County she scored 25, 15 and 25 points and hauled in 31 rebounds. In a 124-37 win over Hesston, she played 11 minutes and scored 14 points.
It was a 69-64 win at Johnson County that set the tone for the season.
“We had so much energy and wanted to prove people wrong, that we could beat these great teams,” Collier said.
Leading by 14 points early, the game was tied 57-57 when Collier put KCKCC ahead to stay with a 3-point goal and Brodi Byrd clinched the win with a three with 1:08 left. Collier finished with 25 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. All were game highs and came when the Blue Devils needed them most – 19 points and 12 rebounds in the second half.
“We had no answer to No. 14 (Collier),” JCCC coach Ben Conrad said.
Three weeks later, Collier made 6 of 12 3-pointers including the game-winner with 1.8 seconds left in a 79-76 overtime win over JCCC in the Region VI semifinals.
“At that moment with the game tied, all I could think was we needed a basket,” Collier said. “It was a pick and pop and I set the screen for Lenaejha (Evans) and when I did I knew I was going to be wide open. I was prepared to shoot that shot and as soon as it left my hand I knew it was going in.”
“Specifically from eight feet either side of the top of the key, Nija is as accurate as anyone I’ve seen shooting threes,” said McKinstry, who told Collier to shoot the three. “She’s really disciplined; has the same stroke, routine and shot every time.”
The game-winner goes down as Collier’s biggest individual moment but the biggest of all came when time ran out in KCKCC’s 84-69 win over Union County in the NJCAA championship game in Harrison, Arkansas, March 23.
“That was the best thing I’ve ever had happen,” she remembered. “It was the last of our goals. To be a part of this group I was so happy. I know I’ll never play with a group like this – so talented, so amazing. Everyone was so important. Not one person. A group effort.”
Collier carries a 2.8 grade point average but will not graduate until December because of some academic requirements.
“Next season will be a redshirt season and she’ll play in the 2020-2021 season,” McKinstry said. “Right now we have several schools interested in bringing her in for the 2020 spring semester.”
Kansas, Western Michigan, Central Michigan, Illinois State and Murray State are among the NCAA Division I schools showing interest along with DII and NAIA members.
“Her talent, size, natural ability and motor are high in all four of this areas,” McKinstry said. “It’s impossible for her to play in a game and not impact it.”