Jordan Burks plays with 'amnesia' in energy role: "He competes really hard"

Jordan Burks probably didn’t envision earning rotation minutes in each of his first five games as a Wildcat, certainly not playing in the frontcourt. But when Kentucky found itself down three 7-footers to open the season, a clear role opened up.

It wasn’t glamorous, especially for a guy who led Overtime Elite in scoring at 27.1 points per game as a senior, but it would get him on the floor. He happily accepted, and the early returns are overwhelmingly positive. Burks is averaging a few points and a handful of rebounds in 11 minutes per contest, but his greatest impact extends beyond the box score.

“I think Jordan’s energy coming off the bench has been phenomenal for us,” associate coach Orlando Antigua said of the versatile freshman. “When he comes in, he competes really hard.”

Listed as a 6-8, 202-pound guard at Kentucky, Burks is obviously out of position. Antigua notes that he’s typically outweighed by 20 or 30 pounds in his individual matchups on the floor.

“But his effort and his anticipation and his energy, his fight to do that?”

That takes guts.

“I just embrace it. I do it,” Burks said of his role. “It’s honestly natural, it’s not even putting on a front. I just go out there when they call my name. That’s how I get in, so I try to make the best of it no matter what. I just want to show how I can make an impact on defense and offense.”

Now, he’s got to continue to learning defensive schemes and communication. That’s been his biggest adjustment to college thus far, that and the size disadvantage, obviously.

“And trying not to foul [laughs].”

But the pure talent jump has not bothered him. No. 1 Kansas or the competition he faced last season at OTE, it doesn’t matter. There are good players at every level. It’s on him to prove he’s just as good.

Burks has scored nine total points on just seven shots on the year, a couple launched threes in the Champions Classic loss making up the bulk of his misses. He’s got it in him, but that just hasn’t been his game thus far. His job has been to give the Wildcats extra possessions, turning rebounds into scoring opportunities for others on the offensive and defensive glass.

He’s been particularly strong as a ball-saver out of bounds, allowing Kentucky to get out in transition and put points on the board or create second-chance looks.

“One of the things that he does an exceptional, exceptional job of is once he rebounds the ball, he is looking and finding guys,” Antigua said. “We’ve been able to capitalize on a lot of those extra possessions that he’s given us in the minutes that he’s played.”

“If the ball is going out, I just try to go get it so we can go,” Burks added. “I’m just out there [laughs], I’m just playing.”

He also prides himself on having a short memory, not dwelling on mistakes. It would be easy to focus on the pair of 3-point misses against the Jayhawks or the bobbled balls around the basket against Saint Joseph’s. Instead, he’s worried about getting back on defense and turning a stop into another opportunity back on the other end.

“Everybody has energy. We know if somebody messes up, you just have to have amnesia to it,” he said. “Just don’t focus on messing up, focus on making up for it. Stuff like that.”

That’s his mindset with the team’s lone loss of the season, a game the Wildcats led by 14 points in the second half. Does losing suck? Always. But was there an opportunity to learn? Plenty of them, actually.

If anything, losing now helps you figure out how to avoid it later. Kentucky did it just a single game later, holding off Saint Joseph’s in overtime.

“It was good to lose early so now we know what we need to work on. Losing early, you’d rather lose now than lose in the championship game, right?” Burks said. “We know what we need to work on like the last four minutes, finishing a game, knowing the right shots, defending the right way, certain players we’ve got personnel for.

“It’s a lot of learning and growth in taking a loss. You just have to bounce back.”

The Wildcats soaked up the loss and moved on. No worries about individual struggles, who did what right or wrong. They simply came back from Chicago looking for ways to improve.

“Amnesia to it, amnesia to the loss,” he added. “We weren’t really focused on the loss or the performance, just came back the next days wanting to learn, wanting to get coached. That’s really it.”