Mimi Collins' expected departure would leave Lady Vols with just one starter back from end of season

Tennessee forward Mimi Collins shoots over Kentucky forward Keke McKinney during a game in Knoxville in January.
Tennessee forward Mimi Collins shoots over Kentucky forward Keke McKinney during a game in Knoxville in January.

KNOXVILLE - Mimi Collins is expected to transfer after one season with the Tennessee women's basketball program.

Collins' expected departure was first reported by 247Sports.com on Thursday. Later in the day, Tennessee athletic department spokesman Eric Trainer confirmed to media the freshman forward's intention to transfer.

An athlete who enter the NCAA's transfer portal can be contacted by other schools but choose to remain at his or her current school.

The 6-foot-3 Collins played in all 32 games for the Lady Volunteers in 2018-19, averaging 5.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 14.5 minutes. She shot 51 percent from the field and made eight of 15 attempts from 3-point range.

After being used sparingly early in the season, Collins came on strong in her final eight games, averaging 8.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 20.9 minutes, shooting 58 percent and going 6-for-10 on 3-point tries during that span. Her best performance was in the Lady Vols' season-ending loss to UCLA in the first round of the NCAA tournament, when she scored 14 points and grabbed three rebounds in 32 minutes.

A consensus top-50 recruit last year, Collins would be the first player from the 2018 signing class to leave the program, but she would be the second player to leave since the firing of Holly Warlick and the hiring of former Lady Vols standout Kellie Harper to replace her as head coach. Evina Westbrook, a 6-foot point guard who averaged 11.5 points and 4.8 assists while starting every game for the Lady Vols the past two seasons, announced her intentions to transfer recently.

Should Collins depart, that would mean four players who accounted for 52 percent of Tennessee's scoring this past season have left the program, as forward Cheridene Green and guard Meme Jackson have exhausted their eligibility. Collins, Green Jackson and Westbrook were four of the five starters for the Lady Vols in their final four games this past season, with Rennia Davis, who will be a junior in 2019-20, the lone holdover in that group.

The Lady Vols have signed four new players for next season: guards Jordan Horston and Jessie Rennie and forwards Tamari Key and Emily Saunders. In addition, graduate transfer Lou Brown, who missed this past season due to injury, has been granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA.

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.

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