‘A 3-point mistake’: Collin Chandler’s shooting elevates UK basketball
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UK basketball sophomore guard Collin Chandler scored a career-best 23 points versus Vandy.
- Chandler tied for Kentucky’s top scoring total in its home win over Vanderbilt.
- Chandler made six 3-pointers in UK’s win over the Commodores.
Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington addressed things right from the top Saturday afternoon.
Yes, UK sophomore guard Collin Chandler was on the Commodores’ scouting report. And yes, Vandy was aware of the hot streak Chandler was riding entering Saturday’s contest between the ‘Dores and Cats.
Yet, Chandler’s 3-point shooting punished Byington’s team all the same.
Chandler poured in a career-best 23 points as part of UK’s 91-77 win over No. 25 Vanderbilt, an impressive turnaround compared to January’s meeting between the teams in Nashville, Tennessee.
The 6-foot-5 Chandler connected on 6 of 8 3-pointers Saturday, which matched his career high for 3s made in a game. What would have been a seventh made 3 was waved off in the second half after officials called a questionable offensive foul on Chandler for kicking out as part of his shooting motion.
Five of Chandler’s made triples came in the first half. Four were in the opening seven minutes.
“I thought the shots that Chandler made in the first half gave the entire team confidence and energy,” Byington said.
This wasn’t some flash-in-the-pan distance shooting display from Chandler. Over Kentucky’s past eight games, Chandler is 29 for 53 on 3-point shots. That’s a 54.7% success rate. On the season, Chandler leads the Cats in both 3-point shooting percentage (44.8%) and 3-pointers made (65).
“What you don’t want to do is make mistakes and give him open ones. And he’s going to make them. He’s a high-level shooter,” Byington said. “He made some tough ones, but we also made mistakes there. If you make a mistake on him, it’s as a 3-point mistake. And that’s what the first half was.”
Should this keep up, Chandler’s 44.8% success rate from deep would be the best by a Wildcat since Reed Sheppard made 52.1% of his 3s during the 2023-24 season.
Four of Chandler’s best 3-point shooting games came in February. He made four 3s during UK’s home win over Oklahoma, five 3s in Kentucky’s road loss at Florida and six 3s when Kentucky lost to Georgia at Rupp Arena. Chandler’s six 3s on Saturday came amid much happier scenes, as the Cats blitzed Vanderbilt in one of their best offensive displays of the season.
“He’s got so much more. Doesn’t he?” UK coach Mark Pope said of Chandler. “He’s 6 for 8 — really 7 for 9 — and nobody that’s watched him is surprised... That’s what he does.”
Collin Chandler’s development reaps benefits for Kentucky
It’s been a long journey for the 22-year-old Chandler to reach this stage of his basketball development.
A four-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class, Chandler put down the ball for two years to go on a Mormon mission trip. He was committed to play for Pope at BYU prior to this pause, and Chandler followed Pope to Lexington when Pope replaced John Calipari at UK in April 2024.
Chandler struggled as a freshman. He needed to adjust to the speed and physicality of high-major basketball while also getting his body back into playing shape.
Chandler provided some meaningful contributions near the end of his freshman year due, in part, to getting more opportunities on the court. He played at least 10 minutes in each of UK’s final eight games last season. That stretch included his best basketball as a first-year player.
“At the beginning of last season, a lot of things felt new because of the break I took, but also playing at such a high level in the SEC and Division I basketball... How fast gaps close, how fast you’ve got to get your shot up. They’re all things that take reps,” Chandler said. “I got reps, and now I’m continuing to build on that.”
This season, Chandler has been an every game contributor with starts in 24 of Kentucky’s 29 games. He’s third on the UK squad in per-game scoring (10.5 points), assists (2.2) and minutes (25).
These improvements have come while Chandler has adapted to a different style of basketball in Pope’s second year as coach. The principles of a fast-paced, 3-point heavy offense may still be there, but that’s not how the Cats are playing.
“We’ve had to adapt because of what we want to do, the tools that we have, the pieces that we have as a team,” Chandler said. “I think we’re getting more comfortable. We’re getting reps. We’re getting better at those kinds of things.”
Recent weeks have highlighted Chandler’s value as a scorer. He’s scored 18 or more points five times since Jan. 21. Each time, it’s either matched or established a career-best scoring mark.
As the calendar changes to March, talks of a potential postseason run abound. If that’s to be the case for Kentucky — still an undermanned group that just played its 10th straight game with only nine healthy players — then Chandler qualifies as a potential difference-maker for the Cats.
“He’s got a calmness and a poise... He’s always been confident, but he’s just getting more and more comfortable, and his ceiling is incredibly high,” Pope said. “He’s got so much more in the tank.”
