Collin Chandler served as Kerr Kriisa's barber during Seattle trip

There’s apparently a lot more to Collin Chandler than the Big Blue Nation is aware of. The freshman is a man of many talents — and that includes cutting his teammate’s hair the night before the biggest game of the season.

As sophomore center Brandon Garrison tells it, Chandler served as Kerr Kriisa‘s barber the night before Kentucky went out and beat Gonzaga in overtime. Kriisa meant to get his hair cut in Lexington the day before the team left for Seattle, but he couldn’t squeeze in an appointment. So instead of just waiting to return home, they picked up some hair clippers on the trip out west and Chandler offered to give it a try.

“Before we left, (Kriisa) didn’t have time to get a haircut,” Garrison said on Tuesday. “So we got some clippers on the road and Collin said he knew how to cut hair. Kerr trusted him.”

In the midst of talking about actual basketball, I had to ask Brandon Garrison about Kerr Kriisa's pre-Gonzaga haircut.

It turns out Collin Chandler gave Kriisa the buzzcut the night before Kentucky's overtime win. They picked up some hair clippers on the way to Seattle. pic.twitter.com/izmhUy5WCz

— Zack Geoghegan (@ZGeogheganKSR) December 10, 2024

Garrison also said that Chandler is good at solving the Rubik’s Cube (we’ve actually seen him go head-to-head and win against Lamont Butler) and is a talented chess player. Chandler’s UK Athletics profile page says he enjoys golfing (another sport we’ve seen him excel at), bowling, and playing board games.

It also says one of his off-the-court talents includes playing Kendama, a wooden toy game with a ball attached to a piece of wood by string. You’ve probably played it at least once in your life and immediately gotten frustrated with it.

And of course, Chandler is also talented on the hardwood. Due to his two-year mission out of high school, he’s older than most traditional freshmen. While that set him back a bit in terms of his development, he’s quickly made up some of that lost time since arriving at UK. He’s appeared in eight of nine games for the Wildcats, averaging 2.5 points in 8.9 minutes per outing.

Chandler is part of Kentucky’s long-term plans and his goal is to reach the NBA down the road. But in the event this whole basketball thing doesn’t work, there’s certainly a career path to being a respectable barber.

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