Zaon Collins remains top recruiting priority for UNLV

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Wednesday, May 27, 2020 | 2 a.m.

UNLV is likely to bring in a much smaller recruiting class in 2021, but it could carry an outsized impact for the future of the Runnin’ Rebels.

Coach T.J. Otzelberger signed eight newcomers in 2020, and with only one senior set to graduate this year (Mbacke Diong), the 2021 group will have to be streamlined. Accounting for Diong’s graduation and routine attrition (from transfers and players going pro), the next class figures to run between two to four players.

The Rebels will have to make the most of it. The program already has one verbal commitment for next year’s class, from 3-star Durango point guard Keshon Gilbert.

The key to the class remains Zaon Collins. The UNLV coaching staff is extremely high on the 6-foot-1 Bishop Gorman point guard, per sources, and they believe in Collins’ ability to come in right away and man the controls as an elite up-tempo floor general.

Collins has been the program’s top recruiting priority since Otzelberger was hired, and though the summer AAU season has been completely disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak, nothing has changed the staff’s opinion about him. Collins is a 4-star prospect, according to 247Sports, and he is ranked as the No. 52 player in the country.

Collins is even more attractive due to his relationship with 2021 forward Arthur Kaluma. UNLV hasn’t been talked about much as a potential landing spot for Kaluma, a 4-star prospect, but some within the program believe that if the Rebels can land Collins, the young maestro can then in turn do some recruiting of his own and convince Kaluma to follow suit.

Kaluma is a 6-foot-8 specimen who currently plays at Dream City in Glendale, Ariz. (the same school where 2020 UNLV recruit Jhaylon Martinez spent his senior year). Kaluma and Collins teamed up at the Nike Elite 100 camp last summer and became tight to the point that Kaluma, a Texas native, joined the Vegas Elite AAU team in order to play with Collins this summer.

The pandemic scuttled those summer plans, but the two could get another chance to team up if Collins chooses UNLV and once again sways Kaluma to come along. The UNLV staff has stayed in touch with Kaluma on the recruiting trail.

"Zaon and Arthur have a very good relationship," Vegas Elite coach Brian Sitter said. "I think they developed a relationship because they have a very similar approach to the game — both very unselfish players who play to win and play the right way."

Kaluma is currently ranked No. 17 in his class by 247Sports and reportedly has offers from programs such as Texas Tech, Kansas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

Sitter said Vegas Elite managed to play one mini-camp in the spring before sports were shut down, and that Collins and Kaluma showed some chemistry.

"They looked great together," Sitter said. "I think Arthur enjoyed it, and obviously Zaon really respects him as a player."

Kaluma isn’t the only frontcourt prospect drawing attention from the Rebels, as they’ve also offered Wisconsin power forward David Joplin. A 6-foot-7 bruiser, Joplin averaged 23.2 points and 10.8 rebounds per game as a high school junior and is currently being recruited by Georgetown, Butler, Missouri and Marquette despite being unranked.

Joplin told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the two programs recruiting him the hardest are Marquette and Butler, and that playing for nearby Marquette would be “a hometown dream.”

Those are the UNLV’s prime 2021 targets as of now. The plans could change, of course, as the class is especially dependent on what Collins ends up doing, but the Rebels will approach the 2021 group with a goal of quality over quantity.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.