Mark Pope, Cody Fueger welcome Collin Chandler back from mission at Utah airport

Meeting players at the airport has become a tradition of sorts in the Mark Pope era at Kentucky. Pope really went above and beyond yesterday, welcoming Collin Chandler home from his two-year Mormon mission at the Salt Lake City airport.

Pope, his wife Lee Anne, and assistant coach Cody Fueger greeted Chandler, a former BYU signee who flipped to Kentucky, with hugs and a Kentucky flag. Chandler has been doing missionary work in Sierra Leone and London for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since July 2022.

https://t.co/wCi3UbVA2p pic.twitter.com/WxO0vTeMKG

— B☄️ (@BanteredB_) May 3, 2024

Chandler, a top-40 recruit in the 2022 class, was listed at 6’4″, 170 lbs. coming out of high school. Based on these pictures with Pope, who is 6’10”, it looks like he’s grown several inches since then. The 2022 Utah Gatorade Player of the Year scored over 1,500 points at Farmington (UT) High School, hitting 135 three-pointers. Chandler originally committed to BYU in Nov. 2021, and when Mark Pope took the job at Kentucky, he followed.

“Growing up, my biggest dream was to play against the best players in the world,” Chandler said when he committed to the Wildcats. “I am beyond grateful to be given the opportunity to do just that. Through the past couple of days, the path I had before envisioned has been blurred. After talking with my family and many prayers, this vision has become clearer than ever. I am humbled to get the opportunity to continue this journey at the University of Kentucky.”

“Collin Chandler is one of the most talented high school players in the country,” Pope said when Kentucky announced his signing on April 22. “He has a silky-smooth jumper, a slippery ability to get to the rim, an explosive burst and the most impressive of all, he has incredible processing speed as he reads space and time and makes plays on pure instinct.

“Collin is the definition of a servant leader. He, on his own desire and expense, chose to leave basketball and his life to go and serve people in Africa and Europe for two years. It won’t take long for every Kentucky fan to feel his heart and his love for others. I absolutely cannot wait to coach a man and player like him.”

Chandler is one of two freshmen on Kentucky’s 2024-25 roster along with Travis Perry. Now stateside, he’ll have some rust to knock off after two years abroad. Not even a family trip to Hawaii will stop him from getting back into shape, Lynn Lloyd, the director of Chandler’s AAU program Utah Prospects, told KSR+ last month.

“He’ll be finding a gym in Hawaii and probably be working out three to four hours every single day from May 4 on,” Lloyd said.

As for Pope, he’ll probably pick up some clothes at his home in Provo and get back to the Bluegrass. From hosting Great Osobor and Koby Brea in Lexington earlier this week to flying to Philadephia to keep Amari Williams on board on Wednesday night to going to Provo to greet Chandler yesterday, I sure hope he’s getting some naps in on the private jet.