"He's so hungry right now": Mark Pope predicts future for Collin Chandler as Kentucky hooper enters his sophomore season

Kentucky men's basketball coach Mark Pope shared his high expectations for freshman Collin Chandler next season. Chandler joined the Wildcats as a four-star recruit, appearing in 30 games and averaging 10.4 minutes, 2.7 points and 1.0 rebound per game last season.

Pope expects more impressive performances from the Farmington, Utah, native next season and said so in an Instagram video posted on Saturday.

"It's Collin Chandler is gonna be a great example," Pope said. "I mean, he's so hungry right now. He's been working really, really hard. I think he, you know, I don't know how many workouts he did on his wedding day. But I'm guessing it was more than one and he just is, he's gonna really have a special, special year next year."

As a four-star recruit, Chandler committed his collegiate career to Brigham Young University, where Pope was head coach at the time. He was BYU’s highest-rated recruit since 2013, committing to the Cougars despite interest from Utah, Arizona, Stanford and Utah State. However, he took a two-year Latter-day Saint mission in Sierra Leone and decommitted from BYU to join Kentucky after Pope was appointed the Wildcats' new head coach.

Off the court, Chandler married Hannah Clark, whom he proposed to in December during Kentucky’s trip to New York City. The Wildcats lost 85-65 to Ohio State.

Mark Pope wants players not to "miss" the Kentucky experience

Time flies when you are a college athlete. A former Kentucky basketball player, Mark Pope understands the concept and wants his players not to miss the experience during their time with the program. In an interview on Kentucky Sports Radio, Pope talked about the Kentucky experience his players should not miss.

“Yeah, our guys could, for sure [feel the love from the fans]," the coach said. "And I think is as much as I was happy about that, I was happy that our guys didn’t miss it. Because the craziest thing is like — and this is almost incomprehensible to me — you could actually come here for a year as a player and miss it. Like, you could miss the whole thing. (Timestamp: 3:04)

“We talk to our recruits about this all the time. If you came here and you were just only dialed into yourself, you could actually miss the great uniqueness and the monstrosity that this experience can be. You could actually miss the whole thing.”

Pope's Kentucky had an impressive 2024-25 season, finishing 24-12 overall and sixth in the SEC this past season. The Wildcats also made it to the Sweet 16 of the 2025 men's NCAA Tournament before they were eliminated by the Tennessee Volunteers.