Kentucky basketball held their annual blue-white scrimmage on Friday. Out of all of the leading scorers from the event, there is one that stood out among the rest and put everyone on notice. Collin Chandler, who is in his freshman season after being away two years on a Mormon trip, took people by surprise when he was the 2nd-leading scorer on the night, only behind Andrew Carr, who had 25 points.
Chandler finished the game with 19 points on 7-10 shooting overall and 4-7 from three-point range. It was a very intriguing performance from someone that many thought would be a developmental piece. It certainly looked like he has already knocked the rust off from being away for two years. Especially long-term, and maybe sooner than people thought, Chandler looks like he has the biggest upside more than anyone else on the roster. He’s atheltic, has really good shot-making, and can impact on the defensive end as well. He was definitely the biggest takeaway from the night, and it looks like he’ll make a big impact on the team this season. His athleticism was really on display when he dunked over Brandon Garrison. We got a taste of it when he dunked over Mark Pope and his wife at Big Blue Madness.
Mark Pope knows how special of a player Chandler has the potential to be as the person that recruited him out of high school, and Big Blue Nation saw that on Friday.
“He’s built special. He’s made incredible personal sacrifices to serve people and love people, and he’s making huge sacrifices for this team right now. When you have guys like that, that are filling up your locker room, it puts you in a really great space, and I thought he was terrific tonight. I thought he was really aggressive. I thought he was incredibly smart. He’s gonna get better and better every single day. Imagine taking two years off without touching a basketball. You got a little rust to shake off. He’s an incredibly talented young man, who’s a better person than he is a basketball player, and you guys saw it tonight. He’s going to be a big-time, big-time basketball player.”
– Pope on Collin Chandler.
As we saw on Friday night, Chandler looks like someone who will be a significant contributor right away, and may be developing much faster than anticipated. It’s really exciting to think about his ceiling as the season goes on. If he does get better as the day goes on like Pope said, that’s scary for Kentucky’s opponents.
