TCU guard Chauncey Collins gaining coach Trent Johnson’s trust

Only one player got any kind of public praise from Trent Johnson last weekend following TCU’s 31-point loss at West Virginia.

It was Chauncey Collins.

The sophomore point guard had 20 points and impressed Johnson with his intensity on defense.

“The thing that was impressive was he really competed,” Johnson said. “He was better defensively than he had been in a long time. It’s nice to see him compete really hard defensively on the road. And the ball went in for him.”

Last season, Johnson was not seeing nearly as many encouraging signs.

Collins was a true freshman a year ago who had played in a home-school league in Oklahoma. He came in as a prolific 3-point shooter, but shot just 27.4 percent for the Horned Frogs and averaged 3.5 points.

Despite an up-and-down off-season in which he wasn’t always available for practice, Johnson prepared him for a bigger role this season. It has generated results.

Collins is tied for the team lead in scoring at 10.9 points per game, shoots 41 percent on 3-pointers and has made 16 starts at point guard as the Horned Frogs (11-14, 2-10) prepare to face Kansas State (14-11, 3-9) in a Big 12 game Tuesday night.

“He had so much going on last year in terms of his lack of commitment to practice, and he had some stuff going on school-wise, he just wasn’t right,” Johnson said. “That’s the word I use.”

Lately, Collins has been right more than not. He finished strong to help TCU beat Oklahoma State last week, scoring 13 points in the second half. Saturday, he was the Horned Frogs’ only effective offense.

Johnson has praised Collins for looking for other players instead of playing with a shoot-first mentality, although that may reduce Collins’ impact offensively early in games. Against Oklahoma State, for example, he was scoreless in the first half.

“I felt like I was playing a little passive, trying to get others open looks, seeing who’s doing what and making sure everybody was in the right places,” Collins said after that game. “In the second half, I knew I had to take advantage of open shots and knock them down.”

In turn, it is giving Collins credibility with Johnson.

“The more experience you get and the better you play and the more consistent you are with your social and your academics and the more productive you are on the floor, the more trust you have,” Johnson said. “It’s all based off of being consistent. That’s with any player, not necessarily Chauncey. He’s gotten better every year. He’s a lot different player, a lot different person than he was last year.”

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 1:48 PM with the headline "TCU guard Chauncey Collins gaining coach Trent Johnson’s trust."