A new era of Kentucky basketball begins tonight, 30 NBA teams pouring into Historic Memorial Coliseum for UK Pro Day — also known as Mark Pope’s public coaching debut in Lexington. The event, now in its tenth season, will be broadcast live on SEC Network+ from 6-7:30 p.m. ET with Dick Gabriel and Goose Givens on the call. It’s a warm-up for Big Blue Madness, scheduled for Oct. 11 inside Rupp Arena.
Those are just the surface-level facts. The reality of this version of Pro Day, however, is that this version of the Wildcats are different than what scouts have come to expect year after year when flocking to the Joe Craft Center and Rupp Arena hoping to see the next crop of NBA talent and draft picks to come through the program. That’s just not what this team is, one with seven super seniors, two incoming portal pieces with remaining eligibility and three freshmen.
There is a ton of college talent, but how many will emerge as surefire pros — beyond training camp invitees and overseas contributors? That remains to be seen, tonight being a nice starting point to help set those expectations.
Who could turn heads inside Historic Memorial Coliseum, though? Better yet, who will we be talking about when the event wraps up Monday evening?
This one is the layup, the Wildcat who took the draft process most seriously this past cycle as a likely second-round selection. Earning Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year honors, Robinson averaged 14.2 points on 42.6 percent shooting, 35.4 percent from three and 90.8 percent from the free-throw line with 81 3-pointers made on the year, good for 11th-most in school history. Finishing in double figures 25 times in 2023-24, Robinson became the first bench player at BYU to ever lead the team in scoring.
Standing 6-6, 192 pounds, the Ada, Oklahoma native has a pro build and skillset as a three-level scorer with the physical tools to be a high-level defender. He rose to stardom in Provo playing under Pope after two unsuccessful stints in the SEC at Texas A&M and Arkansas, finding his footing as a junior (8.5 PPG, 34.3% 3PT) before exploding as a senior. What does the next level look like in year five?
Consistency will be key for Robinson in his final season of eligibility, the graduate senior needing to prove he can build upon that success in a pro environment and platform back in the SEC at Kentucky. Pro Day will be the standout guard’s first opportunity in the spotlight as a Wildcat.
A former McDonald’s All-American, Garrison has 32 games under his belt with 29 starts playing in the Big 12 at Oklahoma State. He finished fifth in the conference in blocks (1.47 BPG) with 47 on the year while shooting 58.9 percent from the field — fourth-best all-time among OSU freshmen — before ramping up his production in conference play averaging 9.9 points and 5.1 rebounds in 25.8 minutes per game.
The top-50 recruit out of high school had three 20-point outings in the Big 12, two coming against ranked competition in BYU under Pope and Baylor under Scott Drew. On the flip side, he also had seven conference finishes of five points or fewer. The potential is sky-high, but can he put it all together and become the dominant double-double threat with elite shot-blocking prowess his talent and tools at 6-10, 250 pounds suggest he can be? That’s what scouts are waiting on.
He’s got NBA upside, the only question is how quickly he gets there.
Like Garrison, Chandler is a former blue-chip recruit in his own right, ranked No. 35 nationally and No. 6 at his position as the Utah Gatorade Player of the Year. Racking up 1,587 career points with 135 made threes while adding 328 rebounds, 229 assists and 105 steals, the 6-5 guard averaged 21.7 points per game with 47 3-pointers en route to 15 games of 20 or more points, highlighted by a season-high 37.
A high-flying athlete with a unique combination of burst, craft and touch around the basket while also being a dynamic shot-maker from mid-range and deep, Chandler was a pro prospect coming out of high school and continues to be entering his debut season in college.
The caveat? There is a two-year gap separating those two stages of competitive basketball, Chandler taking a mission trip after graduating in the high school class of 2022. With time away comes necessary patience during the ramp-up process, the former four-star guard slowly working himself back into game shape — and the potential setbacks that come with that.
He’s going to be a player, but when? He’ll get his first shot in front of scouts tonight.
That trio may be the highest on scouts’ priority list going into the event and potentially leaving, but how about a surprise? It happens every year, most recently with Joey Hart turning heads at Pro Day in 2023 after Adou Thiero went down with a turned ankle, Kentucky’s lowest-ranked recruit hitting just about everything he threw at the rim.
John Calipari even went out of his way to single out the three-star guard to close out the event.
“He made every shot,” he said. “There were scouts asking, ‘Who is 20?!’”
Who could be that player in 2024? Well, if there’s one person you can count on to make shots, it’s Kentucky high school basketball’s all-time scoring leader, Travis Perry. He knocked down 712 threes during his time at Lyon County, good for second-most in KHSAA history. Then he followed that up by hitting 59 consecutive corner threes in a row during summer practices while also going 100 for 100 at the line on three consecutive days.
“I’ve never seen this at any level of basketball,” Pope said of Perry’s hot start at the Joe Craft Center.
Can he continue that momentum down the hall inside Historic Memorial Coliseum with NBA scouts in attendance? The 6-1 freshman is an easy bet to shoot the cover off the ball tonight.
