Collin Chandler was a world away when he made the decision. Since his senior year of high school, the star basketball recruit had been committed to Mark Pope and the BYU Cougars. By this time last year, Chandler was nearing the end of his two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was in England when the college basketball world was turned upside down. John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas, and it was shocking to learn that Pope had been chosen to replace him. It was equally stunning that the new UK head coach received his first commitment less than a week later, less than 48 hours after Pope’s introduction.
From the other side of the Atlantic, Chandler disclosed that he would not be a Cougar. He would be a Wildcat. His hometown is Farmington, Utah, which is less than an hour’s drive from BYU. Instead, he would journey across the nation to Lexington, which he knew very little about. His first collegiate basketball season ended almost a year later. The first year of the Pope era ended when Kentucky defeated to Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
With his eyes still red from the tears that had been there just a few minutes before, Chandler later sat at his locker in Lucas Oil Stadium and thought back on all that had transpired since he took the risk to follow Pope into the unknown. Since I was sixteen years old, Chandler remarked, “I’ve felt a pull towards Coach Pope because I’m a very spiritual person and he’s the one I’ve needed to play for and who’s going to help me become the best player and person that I could be.” When he visited Kentucky, I continued to feel the same way. I knew that was exactly where I should be. And I felt that way.
There wasn’t much else. There weren’t many other things that I was thinking about. It was just really a feeling.”