Collier attended Miami Palmetto High School in Pinecrest, Florida, and later received an Associate of Arts degree from Miami Dade Community College in 1974. He transferred to Butler and played basketball under George Theofanis for two seasons, and was named a team captain and co-MVP in 1975–76. As a senior, he averaged 15.2 points and a team-high 7.5 rebounds while earning first team all-conference recognition in the Indiana Collegiate Conference. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Butler in 1976 and a Master of Science degree from Indiana State University in 1977.[1]
After #13 Stanford reached the NCAA tournament in 1989, Collier began actively searching for a head coaching position. When he learned his alma mater had an opening, "he submitted a 45-page proposal on how to revive the Butler program to then university president Geoffrey Bannister. The 34-year-old Collier was put in charge of team that hadn't made the NCAA tournament in nearly thirty years."[2]
Collier took his first head coaching job at Butler in 1989, a position he held until 2000.[3] During those eleven seasons at Butler, the team had six postseason appearances, including an NCAA Tournament appearance, Butler's first in 35 years.[3] The Bulldogs had five 20-win seasons, after just two in the prior 91-year history of the program, and was named Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now Horizon League) coach of the year in 1991, 1997, 1999, and 2000.
In April 2000, Collier became the head coach at the University of Nebraska in the Big 12 Conference. After six seasons, he moved back to Butler to take the position of vice president and director of athletics,[3] two days after entering the school's Athletic Hall of Fame.[1]
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
Conference regular season champion
Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
Division regular season champion
Division regular season and conference tournament champion
Conference tournament champion