De'Aaron Fox and Aaron Harrison helped recruit Jaland Lowe to Kentucky

Kentucky signee Jaland Lowe grew up just 20 miles outside of Houston in Missouri City, Texas. His father, Marland, has been a grassroots basketball staple in the area for three decades, coaching, training and working alongside well over a hundred high-major talents, many going on to play in the NBA.

Among them? Plenty of familiar faces for Big Blue Nation.

“De’Aaron Fox, the Harrison twins, Ron Mercer — I got several (Kentucky players),” Marland Lowe told WLAP’s Sunday Morning Sports Talk this week. “But, man, Damon Stoudamire, T.J. Ford, Penny Hardaway — it’s a lot of guys. I’ve got a long history doing this, over 100-something guys collectively.”

What if I told you it was Lowe’s connection to past Wildcats that helped push his son to Kentucky? It wasn’t the sole reason — Mark Pope and Alvin Brooks III deserve the majority of credit for their successful recruiting pitches — but they got some help from two fan favorites from the last decade-plus.

The first? Fox, who helped turn an injury conversation into a Kentucky sales pitch. The Pittsburgh star — a lefty, just like Fox — had suffered a finger fracture on his shooting hand and decided to play through it to open his sophomore season with the Panthers, but his efficiency took an unfortunate hit.

That’s when Marland reached out to the former Wildcat for advice after he dealt with a similar injury this past season and fought through the pain to suit up every night.

“When the season started last year — I’ll put this out to people — from November through January, he was basically playing with a broken ring finger on his left hand. He had a splint on his hand after he fractured it during the Cincinnati scrimmage. It was tough,” Lowe said. “I reached out to De’Aaron Fox and asked, ‘What do you do? I saw that you have a splint to tie your hand up, how can he get better with this? He’s not shooting well.'”

One thing led to another, and before long, Fox — who grew up in Katy, Texas — and Lowe were talking about the Cats. Little did they know, the star point guard would be entering the transfer portal at the end of the season and ultimately signing with Kentucky.

Funny how life works, right?

“It’s wild because he shared his experiences up there at Kentucky, just talking about basketball,” Lowe said. “We didn’t know this would materialize, he just talked about how his experience was and how the fan support was unbelievable. He just talked about BBN and was joking, said, ‘One day you might — this is the type of experience you want to have.'”

Fox wasn’t the only player singing the program’s praises while the Lowes did their homework. Another Texan — this one out of Richmond, just 30 miles outside of Houston — with arguably the most magical individual postseason run in Kentucky basketball history made it clear Lexington was the place to be.

“I talked to Aaron Harrison — because he’s obviously from Houston,” Lowe continued. “He said, ‘It’s like nothing you’ve seen before, it’s phenomenal, to say the least. The fans are like none other — they love basketball, they know basketball. Just the experience, man. Be ready for it, because it’s real.'”

The connections run deep, obviously. In fact, Marland Lowe actually played high school ball with former Wildcat Jeff Brassow, of all people.

“Jeff and I played together. Brassow was really good, man,” Lowe said. “He was a phenomenal player back then. That is my guy.”

For Jaland, he grew up with his eyes on Kentucky — from being in the gym with Ron Mercer as a kid to having relationships with Fox and the Harrison twins, it was hard not to. When it came time to make a commitment out of high school, though, the interest wasn’t mutual.

John Calipari already had his point guard and the five-stars to put around him. Instead, Lowe found himself at Pittsburgh under Jeff Capel where he went on to become an All-ACC talent, averaging 16.8 points, 5.5 assists and 4.2 rebounds per contest.

“It was on his vision board out of high school, it was. He wasn’t recruited by them — they came to see him play, it was a good game between him and DJ Wagner, they played each other at Peach Jam in Augusta, Georgia,” Lowe said. “At that point in time, DJ had already committed to Kentucky, but it was on his vision board. It just didn’t materialize at that point in time — which was fine.”

When it came time for Lowe to explore his options in the transfer portal this offseason, Mark Pope pounced right away. He knew almost immediately he had his guy, and since then, it’s been about building the ever-important relationship between head coach and starting point guard.

“Actually, it happened pretty quick. He hasn’t been up there yet — none of us have — but that was not a problem. It was pretty quick,” Lowe said. “Once he put his name in the portal, the next day, Coach Brooks and Coach Pope reached out and things happened pretty fast from there, amongst other schools. It came down to him picking Kentucky as his choice. … It was great, man. They kicked it off and now I just sit back and watch and listen to them kind of build a relationship with each other, feel each other out. That’s what it was.

“Since then, Coach Pope and Jaland have been communicating more so than anything which is great.”

His commitment came without an in-person campus visit in Lexington — only one quick trip in Minnesota before the Final Four. They’ll get plenty of extended face-to-face time when Lowe makes his way to Kentucky to begin summer workouts in June, the official start of his time as a Wildcat.

The coaches have done a great job painting the picture — and don’t forget the assists from Fox and Harrison — but the Lowes are excited to experience it all for themselves in the coming months.

“I am, I really am (excited). It’s surreal and it’s exciting to get the opportunity to be there,” Lowe said. “… It’s one thing to hear it on the phone, you can get a good feeling about it. But until you actually — we get there and we see it ourselves, it doesn’t really sink in to that level. When you look at certain videos and certain clips, the way the fanbase is and the support, you see it.

“But it’s another thing to be in the middle of it yourself, so we’re looking forward to it. We’re excited about it — Jaland is primarily — so we’re looking forward to it.”