Jordan Burks on realizing his childhood dream of being a Kentucky Wildcat

Kentucky added some much-needed depth to its roster today with three-star small forward Jordan Burks. The former Ole Miss pledge announced his commitment to Kentucky this morning on the Paper Route podcast with I Am Athlete. He has already signed with the program and moved into the Wildcat Coal Lodge, bringing the number of freshmen on the roster to six with potentially more to come.

We’ve discussed Burks the player and the pipeline to OTE, where he led the league in scoring with 27.1 points per contest on 46.7% shooting along with 7.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.4 steals. But what about Burks the person? After announcing the news, he opened up about his childhood dream to be a Wildcat and early impressions of John Calipari and his new teammates.

“I feel confident in my decision because Coach Calipari is genuine,” Burks told Paper Route host Brandon Marshall. “He’s a family guy. He’s honest. He doesn’t lie. He tells every player the same thing and it’s not going to be easy because if it was easy, everybody could do it. So that’s why it’s the best fit for me because he wasn’t promising me any minutes, nothing. Just, you’ve got to come work. You’ve got to work for what’s yours.”

Burks shared a picture of himself when he was nine or ten wearing a Kentucky shirt, proof that he’s been a fan of the program since the early days of the John Calipari era.

“It’s crazy,” Burks said of looking at that picture now that he’s a Wildcat. “That’s the first thing that came to my mind. It’s crazy but second, it’s just like, God. I wasn’t being patient. I was trying to rush the process and that’s what I learned going through this process. God already has the decision in his head about what’s next in your life, what’s your next plan so me having to leave, decommit from Ole Miss not having a home, I was like, dang. I was in pain, I wasn’t putting my trust in God. I was trying to do it by myself so I just had to really sit back and I prayed and the right people came and it just happened.”

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Jordan Burks on his fellow freshmen

Now, Burks will play alongside five-star freshmen DJ Wagner, Justin Edwards, Rob Dillingham, and Aaron Bradshaw; four-star rookie Reed Sheppard; and sophomores Ugonna Onyenso and Adou Thiero. Three-star shooter Joey Hart and four-star center Somto Cyril could also join the fold in the coming days. When asked who he’s looking forward to playing with the most, Burks didn’t hesitate.

“DJ [Wagner]. I’ve just seen him, little bits and pieces, and like, I see that dog in him.”

He also mentioned his fellow OTE alum Rob Dillingham.

“Rob, I played against Rob. Rob’s shifty. He’s gonna add to the team. Then we’ve got Justin Edwards. Nice, nice. And we’ve got Aaron [Bradshaw]. We’ve got Adou [Thiero], Ugo [Onyenso], we’ve got everybody. We’ve just got good pieces so you’re not going to be able to double-team. It’s not going to work.”

Kentucky’s first game in the GLOBL Jam in Toronto is only one month away. Burks is ready, telling Marshall that one thing he liked about Kentucky compared to other schools he visited is how close the practice facility is to the dorm, only “ten steps away.”

“So like, I’m already putting in the analytics and seeing how this is going to go. That’s how we’re trying to get our team to see everything. This is a comment from Coach Cal, he said, ‘You ready? You ready more than some of these guys? Come in and work. Get to it. Let’s get to it.’ Get me acclimated, weight training, just everything because we’ve got Canada where we’re going to have to play against pros. So he said get your fails out now. That’s all I needed to hear. I’m excited.”

It will take time for this freshmen-heavy squad to find its footing. When asked if he expects to be a one-and-done like some of his teammates, Burks said he’s just going to trust the process in hopes of helping Kentucky get back to the postseason success the fanbase expects.

“Whatever the process is, the process is. Like I was saying earlier, we want to win. We’ve got to get back to the championship, March Madness. That’s what we’ve got to do. If we all win, we’re all going to eat. That’s straight out of Coach Cal’s mouth. ‘If we win, we all eat. We eat good. We eat good.’ So, we’ve just got to win and love each other and bond.”

First, a moment of reflection.

“I said I wanted to be a Kentucky Wildcat when I was nine, ten years old, and look what happened.”