Tyler Ulis a Kentucky fan favorite, but his size was only part of it

They’ve come and gone over the past few years, many departing after just one season, some after two, all of them ready to pursue their dreams of playing in the NBA. Yet Wednesday’s announcement was a little different.

In this case, just as it has been throughout Tyler Ulis’ career at UK, little means big.

The 5-foot-9 point guard, a consensus All-American, both the SEC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, held a news conference to announce he will hire an agent and enter the 2016 NBA Draft.

No surprise there.

“I feel like the fans like me a lot more because I’m smaller,” he said with a smile. “I’m happy for that.”

That’s true. In a big man’s game, there has always been a special place for the little guy, the smaller player who beats the odds, the smaller player who finds a way to beat the bigger, stronger guy. Small but powerful, Ulis did that and then some.

“He’s in complete control of his team,” said none other than Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski after UK beat the Blue Devils in the Champions Classic in November. “Competing against him, I admired his presence throughout the game, and his face throughout the game was the face of a winner and a really good leader.”

“He has a great understanding of the game,” then-Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings said after Ulis and the Cats crushed the Commodores in Rupp. “He actually utilizes his size to his advantage. He creates advantages with his stature. That’s a unique skill.”

“He is a pure point guard that can hold his own,” said Alabama Coach Avery Johnson after UK tamed the Tide by 25 at Rupp in February. “He takes charges. He throws his body in there. As a coach, you don’t like coaching against him. I see a lot of things that I did as a player in him.”

That’s the thing. It wasn’t just that Ulis was 5-foot-9, it was the way he played basketball we admired most. It was the way he shared the basketball, the way he used angles to somehow get to the rim and score against much taller players without having his shot blocked, the way he understood how the game works.

We don’t see as much of that as we used to see. Blame it on the AAU influence. Blame it on SportsCenter’s highlight reel of endless dunks or ridiculous three-pointers. Blame it on the look-at-me mentality that has crept into the college game.

At Kentucky, Ulis was a look-at-us guy. Asked Wednesday where he felt that he had improved the most during his time at Kentucky, the point guard didn’t hesitate.

“I feel like I’ve improved most as a vocal leader,” he said. “Last year I led, but not much vocally, because those guys knew what they were doing. This year, with more freshmen coming in, I just tried to talk a little more and tried to be more of a vocal leader.”

He excelled at that to the point Coach John Calipari said he would ask Ulis for advice on plays to run, strategy to use, moves to make. Now, Ulis is making his next move.

“I feel like I am ready to open the next chapter in my life,” he said.

Truth be told, there is a sizable portion of the Big Blue fan base that will always believe, right or wrong, that if Ulis had been on the floor more during Kentucky’s loss to Wisconsin in the 2015 Final Four, the Cats would have advanced to the national title game.

Ulis admitted Wednesday there was a part, if only a small part, that wondered what it would be like to stick around for next season and join another stellar Calipari recruiting class for a third shot at a national title.

“Like Coach Cal always said, ‘I’m always going to be 5-9,” Ulis said. “With the season I had this year, I feel like it’s time and I’m prepared.”

There have been plenty of bigger players at Kentucky than Tyler Ulis but few who were better.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Tyler Ulis a Kentucky fan favorite, but his size was only part of it."