Michigan Wolverines basketball freshman guard Frankie Collins was rated as the No. 52 player in the 2021 recruiting class, according to Rivals.com, a blue-chip recruit. There was plenty of excitement when he pledged to and signed with the Maize and Blue, with Michigan fans believing he's the point guard of the future.

But Collins, a 6-foot-1, 185-pounder out of Henderson, Nev., has long felt overlooked. It took him some time to rise up the recruiting rankings, and while he did garner plenty of attention and received north of 14 Division I offers, there were still eight point guards ranked ahead of him.

He's a great athlete — he can take off from just in front of the free throw line, catch a lob pass and finish with a graceful dunk — but questions arose about other aspects of his game. In short, is he a true point guard?

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He's at Michigan now — just over a month into his collegiate career — and is intent on improving his game to the point where he can be a consistent contributor as a freshman, he told host Brian Boesch on the Defend The Block podcast, noting he must enhance his outside shot and be more patient while running the ball screen, a staple in the U-M offense He believes he's been underestimated — sure — but he well knows he's not a finished product.

"On the court, I’m learning a lot every day, being more comfortable and being myself," Collins said. "Getting to learn from everybody — literally everybody, [redshirt junior guard] DeVante’ Jones, [fifth-year senior guard] Eli [Brooks] — getting to see how they maneuver on the court, definitely helps."

In that, he's also aiming to surprise those who have doubted his abilities, taking after his head man, Juwan Howard, who was met with an abundance of skepticism when he took the job at his alma mater in May of 2019 with no prior head-coaching experience.

Howard has some experience with exceeding expectations. He often uttered the phrase, "Shock the world," during Michigan's 1992 run to the national title game his freshman year — something the Fab Five did by nature of just appearing on the season's final Monday night. He played 19 years in the NBA, then seamlessly transitioned into an assistant coaching role with the Miami Heat.

The third-year head coach had many from Michigan in his corner when he took over for John Beilein, but national talking heads and others, naturally, expressed their doubts and made comparisons to alums elsewhere who took over their beloved programs and failed to see success.

It's a similar story — yet, for different reasons — for Collins, who had met Howard a few times throughout his youth basketball career but never visited Michigan before committing. He was attracted to the program because of its "winning culture," he said, in addition to what he thought of Howard and the similarities he saw between himself and the man who is now his head coach.

"That’s the thing. When he came, no one thought he could do what he did," Collins said. "It’s always the same with me. When I come somewhere, people always don’t think of the best, they think of, ‘OK, he’s going, but is he really going to do this, is he going to do that?’

"Juwan shocked a lot of people, and I’m kind of the same way. People always underestimate me, so when I come in, I always like to turn heads and shock people."

Howard's early returns as a head coach, which include a Big Ten championship and an Elite Eight appearance, along with his ability to connect with young adults like Collins, are primary reasons why he and the five others in his class (ranked No. 1 in the country), despite not being able to visit campus due to the pandemic, still hopped on board.

"It has a lot to do with trust, and that’s why the team is the way they are," Collins said. "We came here with no information … Well, we had information, but not as much information, so we trusted the coaches. We trusted the players that are here now. We trusted the whole staff, the school. I’m coming from afar, the West Coast, so I’m really trusting everything they say, trusting their word, trusting their actions.

"It has a lot to do with trust. Without that, everything is nothing."

Howard has taken the strong culture he inherited from Beilein and bolstered it. Six new scholarship freshmen have joined the club, while two captains — Isaiah Livers and Austin Davis — and a young leader in Franz Wagner have departed.

Still, Collins says, the camaraderie remains robust, and a key to the team's success.

"That’s us. That’s what’s going to make us good," he said. "Our chemistry, since the day we stepped in that locker room, has been the best. We all love each other. We all love being around each other. We hang out, with or without the coaches. We all make sure we’re talking on the phone. We play games together; we do everything together.

"It’s like a brotherhood here, for real."

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