Mark Pope referred to Collin Chandler as a bamboo tree: ‘I hope I can continue to grow.’
Collin Chandler finally had his breakout performance of the season on Wednesday night against Vanderbilt.
When you think about Kentucky’s young freshmen, Travis Perry and Trent Noah — two Bluegrass natives who have stepped up as of late — naturally come to mind. But Chandler, who is technically a freshman following his two-year post-high school mission trip, was ranked higher than both coming into college. Sure, he was a bit behind his rookie counterparts after not touching a basketball for roughly 24 months, but he’s catching up quickly. Due to some injuries in the rotation, head coach Mark Pope has been sending a few extra minutes Chandler’s way.
He made the most of every second in Kentucky’s 82-61 victory over the Commodores in Rupp Arena.
Chandler played easily his best game of the season. The 6-foot-5 guard finished with seven points (2-5 FG), six rebounds, two assists, and two steals in his 15 minutes of action. His points and rebounds marked season-highs. Chandler’s drive-and-kick ability opens up different offensive dimensions than the other freshmen. His defensive effort is unmatched, even if not always perfectly disciplined. Pope called him off the bench before anyone else.
This kind of performance was the product of several months of hard work and frustration. While the public never saw the grind behind the scenes, there has been non-stop growth. That growth popped out in real time against Vanderbilt. And of course, Pope had a perfect analogy for it all.
“I thought Collin gave us a massive boost tonight, energy-wise,” Pope said postgame. “Collin Chandler, you know, we talk about these bamboo trees. You guys know the deal about these bamboo trees. So if you think about a bamboo force, you know, a bamboo tree can grow up to, I think the Guinness Book of World Records is 36 inches in a day — I think 35 inches in a day.
“What happens is they grow over time. They grow these massive networks of roots, growing, growing, growing, growing, growing, you don’t see it, right? And then all of a sudden, they shoot up out of the ground, and they’re growing a yard a day almost, which is almost incomprehensible. That’s a little bit of Collin Chandler, like he’s been growing big-time roots, and the plays he made today, he’s been making in practice. And he is going to help us in a huge way as we move down the stretch. I was really proud of him tonight.”
This wasn’t something Pope just thought of on the spot either. As we’ve quickly come to learn, he’s far more calculated than that. The bamboo tree metaphor is one Pope had with Chandler earlier in the season.
“I think the reference to bamboo was they grow roots and then all the sudden they grow really fast where you can’t really see the growth that’s going on until it starts shooting up really fast,” Chandler said. “We’ve talked about that before. I hope I can continue to grow like bamboo, go fast. I’m putting in the work every day, I know what I can do and my teammates do as well. It’s just continuing to stack nights like this. On to the next one.”
Chandler’s freshman season has experienced plenty of ups and downs. There have been sparks of potential with just as many miscues. He was a semi-regular in the rotation through the first five games of the season but only saw double-digit minutes in three of Kentucky’s next 20 games. But Chandler’s roots decided now was the time to unearth itself. It translated into the most confident and productive game of his college career.
“It was great, you know,” Fifth-year center Amari Williams said. “Just the confidence he’s had just bringing the ball up the court, all the rebounds he got to, I feel like that’s something which was underrated today, just how many rebounds he got and where he got them. Yeah, he was great tonight. He was very confident in himself.”
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