Collin Chandler has no regrets about following Mark Pope. ‘This is where I needed to be’
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Game day: Tennessee 78, Kentucky 65
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Collin Chandler was an ocean away when he made the decision.
The star basketball recruit had been committed to Mark Pope and the BYU Cougars since his senior year of high school. By this time last year, Chandler was nearing the end of his two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He was in England when the college basketball world was turned on its head. John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas. A shocker. Pope was chosen as his replacement. Just as stunning.
Less than a week later — fewer than 48 hours after Pope’s introductory press conference in Rupp Arena — the new UK head coach got his first commitment.
Chandler revealed, from across the Atlantic, that he wouldn’t be a Cougar. He’d be a Wildcat. Instead of going to BYU — less than an hour’s drive from his hometown of Farmington, Utah — he would travel across the country to Lexington, a place he knew little about.
Nearly a year later, his first college basketball season came to an end. Kentucky lost to Tennessee in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, finishing the first year of the Pope era.
Afterward, Chandler sat at his locker in Lucas Oil Stadium — his eyes still red from the tears that had been there a few minutes earlier — and reflected on everything that had happened since he took that leap of faith to follow Pope into the unknown.
“I’m a very spiritual person, and since I was 16 years old, I’ve just felt a pull towards Coach Pope — that he’s who I’ve needed to play for and who’s gonna help me to become the best player and person that I could be,” Chandler said. “And so I still felt that same way when he came to Kentucky. And so I knew that was just where I needed to be. And that was my feeling. There wasn’t much else. There weren’t many other things that I was thinking about. It was just really a feeling.”
As expected, times were tough for Chandler this past season. Getting reacclimated to basketball — and trying to do it at this level of the sport — was a daunting task. His playing time decreased as the season progressed.
Over a span of more than two months — from December to February — he scored a total of two points. And then, as UK’s injuries in the backcourt mounted and Chandler got more comfortable with his game, he started to get more chances.
He scored a season-high 11 points in Kentucky’s final home game of the season. He scored nine more a few days later in the regular-season finale at Missouri. He hit big shots in both of the Wildcats’ victories in the NCAA Tournament before Friday night.
After the loss to Tennessee, he talked about what he’d been through and expressed his thanks for the teammates that had been by his side. When he committed to the Wildcats last April, he had no idea who any of those teammates would be. But it worked out for the best, both for Chandler and Kentucky, which fell short of its ultimate goal but perhaps laid the groundwork for greater things in the future.
“I think God knew who needed to be here,” Chandler said. “That’s my personal feeling. And it feels very personal for me. God knew who I needed to be around to come back into the situation, the complications of coming (to college basketball) after not playing. And, I mean, they’ve been so gracious to me and helping me learn the game of basketball and being patient.
“And so these guys meant the world to me. And those are people you remember for a long time — people that are there for you and in hard times. So that’s what this group means to me.”
While Chandler didn’t know exactly who his teammates would be in year one, he had faith that Pope would find the right fits, on and off the court.
“This game — in this world that we live in, in college basketball — it’s a game of trust,” he said. “I’ve known for a long time that I trusted Coach Pope and what he’s doing and his feel for the game. And so I trusted him, because when I committed, I didn’t know who was going to be here. But I felt in my heart that it was the right decision, where I needed to be. And I still feel that way at the end of the season. I feel like this is where I needed to be, and I needed to be in this place to learn the things that I did.”
Chandler declined to say much about his status at Kentucky beyond this season. He’s been the subject of transfer rumors — back to his home state of Utah — basically since he arrived in Lexington, though he’s said nothing to indicate he plans to play anywhere else next season. UK’s staff is expecting to have Chandler back for another season. And just about everyone in college basketball is the subject of transfer rumors these days.
He was engaged over the team’s winter break, and the wedding is set for early May. His fiancée attends the University of Utah, but he spoke last week as if the plan is to live in Lexington, and he also talked about how welcoming the community has been over the past several months.
Chandler said he knew there was probably a lot of speculation on his basketball future, but he was trying to avoid that as the Wildcats worked toward their goal of a national championship.
“Not at the moment,” he said when asked if he knew his future plans. “I mean, I’m sure it’s chaos out there, as it usually is towards the end of the season. But we’ve been pretty locked in as a team and focusing on what we set out to accomplish back in June. And so that’s been our main priority and focus.”
As the locker room closed to reporters, Chandler had left his own locker and pulled up a chair next to Travis Perry, one of his fellow freshmen. Trent Noah, the other freshman on the team, sat nearby. Noah and Perry, both Kentucky natives, made it clear they intend to be back at UK next season.
“It’s been full of ups and downs for us as freshmen. Full of uncertainty,” Chandler said. “And I’m grateful for those two. We’ve become very close. And people who are going to be important to me for the rest of my life are Trent and Travis. And so I’m grateful that we got to go through it together, and I’m grateful I was able to have people there with me that we could empathize with each other and what we’re going through and talk it out and how we’re going to be better. And so those guys have been great.”
