After coming on strong late in his freshman season last year, Kentucky Wildcats guard Collin Chandler is poised to build off that strong finish and parlay that into a strong second season with Mark Pope and the Wildcats.
Kentucky head coach Mark Pope has talked multiple times this offseason about how his second-year players take “massive leaps.” Pope expects to see that happen with Chandler.
However, that hit a bit of a speed bump recently, as Chandler missed some practice time while battling a minor injury. That caused him to miss the team’s scrimmage against La Familia earlier this month, which Kentucky narrowly won in what was a defensive struggle.
According to KSR’s Jack Pilgrim, Chandler returned to practice on Tuesday after dealing with the undisclosed injury.
“Collin Chandler has been out dealing with a little bit of a minor, minor, minor injury,” Pilgrim said on Tuesday night’s episode of Sources Say. “I’m told he is back, actually returned back to practice today, so that’s definitely a big positive. But wasn’t a part of that scrimmage with La Familia and some of the practices leading up and the 5-on-5s in the days since, but is officially back. That’s a great update.”
In eight games last March, including two in the SEC Tournament and three in the NCAA Tournament, Chandler averaged six points and 1.8 rebounds per game while going 12/23 from 3-point range. He actually shot 5/8 in the NCAA Tournament for a scorching 62.5%.
Expectations are high going into his second season, and Chandler seems poised to carry the momentum he generated this past March when the upcoming season tips off in November.
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