Ashton Hagans offers advice to Kentucky ahead of NCAA Tournament: "Take it all in"

Ashton Hagans had a different and more unfortunate take on one-and-done during his time in Kentucky. No, it had nothing to do with staying a single season before taking his talents to the NBA, signing a lucrative rookie contract and living the good life as a pro.

His version was bittersweet — and flat-out sad, at times. He signed with the Wildcats as a five-star recruit, helped lead the team to the Elite Eight as a freshman, then decided to return for one final season with title dreams. It was an opportunity for him to develop into a draft prospect while taking care of unfinished business in the NCAA Tournament.

And entering postseason play, things were trending in the right direction for both. Kentucky won the league by three games, an overwhelming favorite in the SEC Tournament and a real contender in the Big Dance. Hagans had just missed the regular-season finale at Florida due to personal reasons and had mentally and physically prepared himself for a statement return during postseason play. Be the two-way force he had been at his best during his two-year career in Lexington, make a run to the Final Four, and maybe a team takes a shot on him in the draft? He was ready.

Then the world shut down, no postseason at all. No redemption story, no statement return, nothing. Just a sad bus ride home from Nashville knowing it was all over.

“Not being able to play that last game, Tournament canceled, it was a hurtful feeling,” Hagans told KSR in a sit-down interview Thursday evening. “Just not being able to be out there one more time, thinking you were going to be out there one more time with your brothers and go far in the tournaments, SEC Tournament and March Madness. … Not being able to play, it hurt. We were ready.”

Hagans was a freshman when Kentucky won its last NCAA Tournament game, a Sweet 16 win over Houston in 2019. Four years later, he met with the current Wildcats in Greensboro — conveniently enough, where he plays in the NBA G-League — leading up to their own NCAA Tournament journey.

His message? Soak this all in, make the most of this opportunity. You never know when it can all be ripped away from you, like it was for him back in March 2020. And the grass ain’t always greener on the other side.

“Today we had Ashton Hagans come in for lunch, and he spoke to the group,” John Calipari said during his pregame press conference on Thursday. “… You know what he said? He looked at them and said, ‘Appreciate all this. Appreciate how they treat you. Appreciate how you’re coached. And appreciate this NCAA Tournament.’ He said, ‘My first year, we went to the Elite Eight. My second year we all thought we were winning the national title. … And then they took the Tournament. You have to look at what has happened for you now and you’re here. Take advantage. Go have a ball. Be for each other. Love each other.'”

Calipari was taken aback. Hagans was one of the quietest guys on the team, never one to speak up during his time in Lexington. Yet after three years away from the program, he felt inclined to deliver a powerful message to his former school leading up to the biggest game of their individual lives.

“To be able to do that made me proud that he was able to speak the way he spoke to the team. And he connected with them,” Calipari said. “They all got up and hugged him and shook his hand. That kind of stuff, when you are into coaching, seeing your guys and your former guys and seeing their growth, it’s — there’s nothing better.”

And there was a reason for it. He has now lived on the other side, spending life in the G-League, scratching and clawing for the opportunity to play professional basketball. He’s found great success, but he’s still patiently waiting for his breakthrough at the next level.

“That grind is a different grind,” he told KSR. “You’ve got to be really locked in on it, you’ve got to really want that to be your lifestyle. It’s a business at this level and you (become) a grown man. You see things different.”

It’s easy to look ahead and want that life until you’re actually living it. You don’t realize the opportunity that comes with being at Kentucky, playing for a Hall of Fame coach, every resource and amenity you could ever ask for, on college basketball’s biggest and brightest stage, until it’s behind you.

And when that reality sets in, it’s a tough pill to swallow. He wanted the current Wildcats to understand that feeling, now more than ever.

“Being at Kentucky, that’s a one-time thing you get in life. When you go on to that next step in life, being a professional, it’s a business. It’s nothing like the opportunity that you’re getting right now. So just take it all in, you know? March Madness is a big event. You never get that opportunity again in life, playing on a big stage like that for a great coach.”

It’s not just about the wins and losses, either. The on-court stuff is undeniably important, but it’s also about what happens away from basketball and the relationships they have together as a team. You don’t get that kind of camaraderie anywhere else, the opportunity to experience life with your brothers, traveling and hooping with those closest to you.

Once you get to the next level, all of that is thrown out the window. You have friends, sure, but with trades, cuts and free agency, your right-hand teammate could be on an opposing bench without warning. It’s a business, first and always.

“Just grab each other and get that bond, show everybody that y’all are the team that can do it. Y’all got the talent that we had when I was there,” he said. “I just picked up on how we didn’t get to play my sophomore year in the Tournament, just how much that hurt. Just keep going out there, you know?

“We’re behind you. We didn’t get that opportunity, so we want to see y’all win and so does the rest of the BBN family. You got the best coach in college and it don’t get any better than that. That was my message.”

The way his time in Lexington ended still sticks with him, clearly. Haunts him might be a better way to put it. It’s one thing to lose in the postseason, but it’s another to have it taken from you completely, especially in a year Kentucky really thought a run was coming.

John Calipari has gone out of his way since to stress it was a team he felt had the pieces to make it to the Final Four, if not win the whole thing. He may hyperbolize at times (or often), but in this case, he truly believes it. And Hagans does too.

“Oh yeah, we were winning that thing. I truly believe that,” he told KSR. “Just the pieces we had. Going into that week, it was different. We were playing different basketball, the games we had going into the Tournament, we hadn’t played like that all year. We were ready and we were prepared. Coach had us prepared. And off the court, we were just always around each other. We knew what we had that year. We were ready. I think we would’ve won, made it to the Final Four. That was a great year.”

Those highs are what created the lowest of lows, a tear-filled bus ride home from the SEC Tournament in Nashville when the entire postseason was canceled. It was right there for the taking, then gone in a flash. A reality that those individuals will likely never be together again as they all take the next steps in their respective lives. That opened the door to conversations on the way home Hagans will remember for the rest of his life — in a way, his favorite memory during his time at Kentucky.

If you’re looking for examples of bittersweet, it doesn’t get any more real than that.

“The bus ride from Nashville, knowing that was going to be our last time with each other. We all had love for each other, always together,” he said. “Being around that group of guys, one last time, it was one of the best feelings too. Everyone was getting things off their chest you probably would’ve never known. Having those conversations with them after not being able to play, that was a big thing. … We all cried, because we knew what that team was capable of.”

He hopes the current team gets to experience that, only a few weeks later and with a life-changing run under their belt. And he believes it’s possible.

“It was going to be big, be special,” Hagans said. “For us to not be able to do that, and the group of guys that can play, you’ve got to go out there with a chip on your shoulder. We really wish we got that opportunity. … I’m just happy to see them out here in Greensboro. Hopefully they can do something in the games they got out here, and I’m rooting for them. I think they’re gonna go all the way. I just want them to lift some things off their shoulders and say, ‘We got this.'”

He may not have gotten the Final Four or title win he hoped for in Lexington, but his time as a Wildcat is something he’ll be forever grateful for.

“BBN, it means a lot to me. I’m going to forever rep that,” he told KSR. “It took a kid from a small town in, made him feel the highest he’s ever felt in life. Seeing different things he’s never seen, being around one of the best coaches and coaching staffs ever.

“I just want to say thank you to the fans for bringing that energy, still to this day and making it a family. That’s something I’ll never forget. The BBN family, it’s forever with you.”