Tre Mitchell calls Kentucky fan support in Canada 'unbelievable'

The Kentucky Wildcats have picked up their first win over Germany at GLOBL JAM, being held in Canada. But ahead of their 81-73 victory, the Wildcats’ transfer portal acquisition, forward Tre Mitchell, shared his thoughts on the amount of fan support Kentucky has in Toronto with them.

“I think it’s unbelievable that this many people showed up in Toronto. It just shows that the Big Blue Nation is one of a kind. You got people everywhere, and they support us no matter what. Even walking in the gym, you felt the love immediately,” said Mitchell.

Kentucky is the fourth program Mitchell will suit up for in his collegiate career. Entering into the offseason, it looked as if the power forward would remain with the West Virginia Mountaineers for the last year of his collegiate career. But following a tumultuous offseason, Mitchell elected to hop into the transfer portal, joining John Calipari in Kentucky. Last season with the Mountaineers, Mitchell was a starter in 32 of the 34 games he played. The six-foot-nine forward went on to finish the year averaging 11.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game.

Mitchell had himself quite the exhibition against Germany on Wednesday. He finished the game as the Wildcats leader in minutes played with just over 34 minutes. He was also the Wildcats’ second leading scorer with 20 points behind super senior guard Antonio Reeves. Mitchell and the Wildcats are loving the fan support they are receiving in Toronto, and the result of their opening game is proof of that.

Kentucky fairs well in rebound battle of first GLOBL JAM game

Losing Oscar Tshiebwe to the NBA is an obvious blow to Kentucky‘s rebounding efforts for the 2023-24 season. They won’t be tabbed as elite on the glass anymore, but the Wildcats looked just fine hauling in boards in an 81-73 victory against Germany during the 2023 GLOBL JAM in Toronto.

Kentucky was ultimately outrebounded 50-46 by the Germans, but four of UK’s five starters logged at least four or more rebounds on the day. Incoming freshman Justin Edwards led the team with nine boards and as a team, grabbed 11 offensive rebounds.

“We lost our biggest guy yesterday. For us, we proved to ourselves that we can fight. We can rebound,” Kentucky forward Tre Mitchell said during the CBSSN broadcast after the win. “Coming into this, I know there were rumors floating around saying that we weren’t a good rebounding team because of our size. But I think we proved everybody wrong today because we ended up winning the game because we rebounded.”

Ugonna Onyenso, one of Kentucky’s three returning players from last season, had to be helped off the court after suffering an ankle injury during a scrimmage against Team Africa ahead of the event. Aaron Bradshaw is also expected to miss significant time after undergoing foot surgery last month. Standing 6-foot-11 and 7-foot-1 respectively, the Cats are stretching as far as they can with their limited roster at the moment.