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The 16-year-old was in the throes of an argument with a referee when his coach, Evric Gray, pulled him aside by one of his gangly arms. The Salt Lake Rebels' star player's arguing with the officials wasn't going to help win a tournament.
"You keep talking to the ref like you're gonna change his mind," Gray said to the kid. "Stop talking."
The lesson took some time to sink in, but in the end, David Collette learned: Don't fight the battles you can't win.
Now 23, Collette has recently spent more time waiting to play basketball than actually playing. A five-and-a-half year winding trek from Murray High School to the University of Utah will reach another milestone: He will make his Ute debut on Saturday against Prairie View A&M.
To many, Collette will forever live on in infamy as the player who left Utah State two days before last season began, leaving his teammates without one of their top returners. But the junior forward is no longer concerned about the shots he takes from Aggie fans — or anyone else for that matter.
"I don't have a response — I'm gonna let them think what they want," he said. "All the heat I took was actually really comical, it was something I really enjoyed. Fans think they know everything."
That's not how everyone in Collette's circle feels, of course: Turning from hero to heel in the eyes of Utah State fans has wounded his parents, his wife and others close to him who defend his character. But Collette, focused fully on the next stage of his already lengthier-than-expected career, lets it all roll off of him like a referee's call.
"If he was a gambler, he'd be a great poker player," Gray said of his formerly hot-headed pupil. "He really doesn't care what people say.
"He's ready to play."
Landing in and leaving Logan
He was one of the first in-state recruits Larry Krystkowiak laid eyes on, and one of the first to be snatched away.
Newly hired by the U., Krystkowiak was scouting the player who would become his first big recruit, Jordan Loveridge. But playing against him was a 6-foot-10 forward who, despite having a twig-like build, was tough and played with a fantastic motor.
But almost as soon as Krystkowiak identified him, Collette committed to Utah State.
"We never really had an opportunity to prove ourselves to Dave," Krystkowiak said.
Utah State had already done that: Collette wanted to play for Aggie coach Stew Morrill, and he was willing to wait to do so. He redshirted his freshman year and went on a two-year church mission to North Carolina before ever playing a game in Logan. He delivered on his promise as a freshman, second on the team in scoring (12.8 ppg) and rebounding (5.0 rpg) while making the All-Mountain West third team.
Then Morrill retired.
The biggest reason Collette came to Logan had just left the program. Morrill's lead assistant, Tim Duryea, was picked as his successor. Collette was skeptical from the start, but he decided to stay on. It didn't work out.
A year ago, as the Collettes were waging a war in the press with Utah State, which had declined to release him from his scholarship, David told Yahoo! Sports that he was bothered when Duryea used the phrase "you might as well shoot yourself in the back of the head," and that he was asked to be silent about an altercation between players in practice. At the time, the Aggies said Collette was trumping up these issues.
After a recent practice, Collette brought up neither complaint when asked why he left.
"I just felt like I didn't really respect Coach Duryea enough to be able to play for him," he said. "I knew I couldn't stay there."
On Friday, Nov. 6, 2015, Collette scored 22 points to lead the team in an exhibition loss to Cal State Monterey Bay. The following Monday, he called Gray, interrupted his wife in class and called his parents (who were vacationing in Hawaii) to let them know he was preparing to uproot and transfer.
The hardest people to tell were his teammates. He was especially close to Jalen Moore, and told him first. He told others quietly that when they next took the floor against Weber State later that week, he wouldn't be with them.
"Of course they tried to get me to stay, at first," he said. "I don't think 'support' is the right word, but a lot of the guys I was close with said, 'I can see why you're leaving.' I heard that a lot, and that made it easier."
A Utah State spokesperson declined an interview request on Duryea's behalf. Utah's director of operations Chris Jones, who was an assistant with Utah State during Collette's departure, also declined to comment except to say he has a good relationship with Collette.
Narrowing the options
Gray didn't sleep well for weeks after Collette decided to transfer: His phone kept ringing.
Once word got out that the low-post scorer was looking for a new home, coaches were in a scramble to see if he'd be interested in coming over.
"The only person I don't think I talked to was Coach [John] Calipari at Kentucky," Gray said. "I talked to everybody around the country. I mean everybody."
But Utah State's decision not to release Collette from his scholarship had critical consequences: Neither Collette nor his family could talk to any of the coaches who were interested, and he would have to pay his own way for a year at his next school.
That narrowed the options. David's parents, Jeff and Diane Collette, agreed to let David and his wife, McElle, move from the couple's apartment in Logan into their basement in Murray. Financial planning is the family business — David determined that it made the most sense to stay in-state.
He remembered that Krystkowiak had once taken a liking to him. Could Utah still be interested? The Collettes had Gray reach out to the Utes coaching staff on their behalf.
Krystkowiak is adamant on two points: He never was in contact with Collette's camp until after he had already left Utah State, and he didn't meet with Collette in person until the first day of the spring semester, when he had already enrolled. On both counts, he says, the Utes were well within NCAA guidelines.
"We heard it through the grapevine," Krystkowiak said. "We'd be dumb not to say, 'Yeah, we're interested.' "
On the first day of class at his new school, Collette met his new coach for the first time. He was relieved to see open arms.
"It was kind of like the unknown before that," he said. "I thought that I was good enough to play there, but I didn't know what they thought. It was just a sigh of relief."
Another start
Last weekend, Gray got another late-night call. It was Collette. He wanted to work out.
Their gym sessions vary: sometimes it's shooting, sometimes it's banging in the post, sometimes it's therapy. Last weekend, it was a little bit of everything. Collette had just watched the Utes fall at Xavier.
"It drove him nuts," Gray said. "He thought he could've helped."
Utah (6-2) hopes to find out this weekend how much Collette can help. He's played in only 31 games since he graduated from Murray in 2011, but in practice, he's a handful. He can frequently be found sparring with freshman Jayce Johnson — the duo say their rivalry is a friendly one, though it hasn't been without a few elbows between them.
Collette is also one of the vocal leaders on the team during practice, which is why Krystkowiak made him a captain along with Kyle Kuzma and Lorenzo Bonam. Sophomore Parker Van Dyke said younger players look up to him and ask him questions about his USU career: He usually only brings positive memories to the table.
Krystkowiak understands that Collette will probably be controversial for years to come, but if he needed to pay a penance, it's been long paid.
"At some point, people need to be allowed to do what is right for them," Krystkowiak said. "When he sat out all of last year and some of this year after making that decision, that's a big price to pay."
Collette, for his part, is ready for another start to his often-stalled career.
"It's been a year of working out with really no reward," he said. "Sometimes it seems like it's been forever. I can't wait."
Twitter: @kylegoon —
Prairie View A&M at Utah
P Saturday, 4 p.m.
TV • Pac-12 Network