Collin Chandler’s basketball journey has been ‘full of frustration,’ but patience led to breakthrough

Collin Chandler was blunt about his first year in college basketball, especially at an eat-or-be-eaten program like Kentucky. Coming off a two-year mission trip, he didn’t play competitively for two years and was forced to go through a tricky ramp-up process to not only get in game shape and find his feel again, but also test his mental toughness as a first-year hooper in the SEC.

After a brief high stealing the show in the Blue-White Game, the freshman guard’s season has come with many lows. He earned double-figure minutes in four games in November, then just one in December before sitting four games entirely in January to open SEC play. Chandler had a miniature defensive breakthrough at Tennessee on Jan. 28 before earning extended run vs. Arkansas on February 1, but followed that with a stretch of no more than five minutes in four straight games.

Then came his breakthrough, going for a career-high seven points on 2-5 shooting while adding six rebounds, two assists and two steals in 15 minutes off the bench in the 82-61 win over Vanderbilt. The patience paid off — no matter how difficult it may have been.

“I think I’ve grown a lot mentally,” Chandler said following the win. “I thought I was mentally tough coming in, but it’s been a lot of learning, a lot of patience. Just coming in the summer and not being able to play right away, trying to get used to everything, it’s been an experience that has been full of frustration. It’s helped me a lot and I’m gonna continue to grow.

“Basketball is a game of frustration, so I’m gonna continue to try to respond to that. That’s what I’ve learned.”

His teammates have been watching the process unfold from behind the scenes, witnessing the hard work as Chandler fought for this day. They knew it was coming, a matter of when not if.

It was an all-around effort with scoring, rebounding, playmaking and defense that directly contributed to winning.

“He played great tonight,” Amari Williams said of Chandler. “You talk about him at point guard, but on the boards, he was a menace, too. He was grabbing every board at the highest point. He brought a lot to us tonight, he really helped us. … Just the confidence he’s had bringing the ball up the floor and his rebounding, that was very underrated. He was great tonight.”

“I’m super proud of him, super happy to see how hard he works and everything,” Andrew Carr added. “He wants to be able to step up and we knew it was going to happen for him. He’s done a great job in practice for us, so being able to see those results on the floor was really special. I’m really proud of him, he did an awesome job tonight. He’s playing super hard.”

Was there a specific moment in practice that led to the breakthrough? Carr noticed a clear change after the holidays. Something had clicked with the freshman guard, Chandler finally starting to figure things privately before he was able to show it off in a live game setting.

“I could just see — everybody, especially as a freshman, they have those moments where you feel like you’re really starting to figure it out,” Carr said. “Credit to him, he’s continued to stick with it. That was a couple of months ago and we’re just now getting to the tip of the iceberg for him now. It’s been a long time coming for him.

“We’ve seen it, we’ve known it. I’m super proud of him.”

Chandler had his best game as a Wildcat against the Commodores, but his head coach believes there is more where that came from as February turns to March.

“The plays he made today, he’s been making in practice,” Mark Pope said. “He is going to help us in a huge way as we move down the stretch. I was really proud of him tonight. … The conversation we kept having was we know exactly where he’s going to end up. He’s an incredibly special talent. Like, he’s a really special talent. We know where he’s going to end up. It’s just a matter of — we don’t know how the zig-zag path is going to get you there, right? He’s been working so hard.”

Welcome to the show, Collin Chandler. At long last, the top-35 recruit and Pope’s very first high school signee after taking the Kentucky job has arrived.

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