Mark Pope predicts a massive second-year jump for newly-married Collin Chandler

Collin Chandler is due for a breakout sophomore season at Kentucky. Last year, Chandler was behind the curve when he moved to Lexington for his freshman season of college basketball, having served a two-year LDS mission away from basketball in Sierra Leone. By season’s end, Chandler caught up to his classmates and carved out a significant role in the final stretch of the year for the Wildcats, scoring more points in March (48) than he did in November, December, January, and February (34) combined.

Next season, Chandler will again be coming off a unique offseason for a college basketball player, but this one didn’t involve a break from basketball. He married his longtime girlfriend, Hannah, back home in Utah on May 8, followed by a honeymoon to celebrate their nuptials. However, Chandler’s coach, Mark Pope, wonders if Chandler took a day off from basketball to tie the knot. Pope believes that Chandler still found a gym on his big day.

“He’s so hungry right now,” Pope said. “He’s been working really, really hard. I don’t know how many workouts he did on his wedding day, but I’m guessing it was more than one, and he’s gonna have a really special year next year.“

Second-year jump expected for Chandler

Why the confidence in a big jump in Chandler’s game? Pope sees second-year leaps in most of his two-year players, even going back to his former coaching jobs. “Our guys make a massive jump from year one to year two,” Pope explained on Tuesday. “Guys that, kind of, are in our deal. Wherever I’ve coached, it’s so fun, year two is so fun, because year one is just this onslaught of learning decision-making. I mean, as a broad brush, you’re just overwhelmed with learning decision-making, and learning decision-making takes time, right?

“Learning dot-to-dot takes a little bit of time,” he continued. “Learning how to make decisions takes a lot of time and understanding why and where and how, and the skill set to actually do it, and what works and what doesn’t, and what works for you as an individual player with your skill set and what doesn’t. So, guys coming in second year for me, almost without fail, they take massive leaps.”

Pope expects Chandler to be one of those guys in 2025-26.

“We expect all these returners to be much, much better than they were last year, which is saying a lot, because they were really good last year.”