Expect more minutes for Collin Chandler in postseason: 'He's gonna be a big key to this.'

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Kentucky Wildcats guard Collin Chandler (5) reacts after making a three-point basket during the first half against the LSU Tigers at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Collin Chandler has successfully worked his way into Mark Pope‘s rotation.

Pope has been searching for replacement pieces with this “new” version of Kentucky’s roster, one where everyone is playing outside of Jaxson Robinson and Kerr Kriisa. It’s only been three games with this current group of Wildcats, but Chandler has quickly established himself as one of those pieces. After a rough start to his first season back playing basketball in two years, he’s beginning to find his footing at the perfect time.

The freshman guard has been sound on both ends of the floor (particularly on defense) over Kentucky’s previous three outings: 7.7 points in 16.3 minutes per game on 5-10 combined three-point shooting. His defensive effort chasing around Missouri’s Caleb Grill in the regular season finale was quite impressive (and one of the reasons UK was able to pull off the upset). At 6-foot-5, he can do things on offense and defense that most of his teammates simply can’t.

Chandler is effectively serving as Kentucky’s sixth man right now. After the starting five of Lamont Butler, Otega Oweh, Koby Brea, Andrew Carr, and Amari Williams, it’s Chandler who’s been playing the most minutes over the last three games. He’s been on the floor more often than all of Brandon Garrison, Ansley Almonor, Trent Noah, and Travis Perry during that time.

Pope expects a similar trend to continue into the postseason tournaments.

“He’s getting more and more comfortable on the floor,” Pope said Wednesday about Chandler. “He gives us some things that we don’t have a lot of on the roster. He’s doing so much defensively and we’re gonna need him to be great on the defensive side. He’s getting more aggressive and comfortable on the offensive end where he’s in attack mode, but attacking the way we do it. We need that. We need both those things. He’s gonna be a big key to this. Our lineup is not super deep. We need everybody to be really big, and of course we need Collin.”

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Chandler has been almost forced to fill the role left behind in the wake of Robinson’s season-ending wrist surgery, but he had a bit of a runway beforehand. Chandler played 15 and then 13 minutes in back-to-back February games when Robinson initially injured his wrist (but hadn’t been ruled out for good yet), finishing with a total of 12 points, six rebounds, two assists, and four steals between the two contests.

At the time, those extra minutes felt like a bonus. If Robinson came back with Chandler playing that well, Kentucky’s depth would be tough to handle. But Robinson isn’t coming back. Now, there aren’t many other options to look to. Chandler has shown he can confidently fill the void though. Pope will need him to keep stepping up as we enter tournament play on Thursday.