Collin Chandler is back at practice after dealing with minor injury

Collin Chandler - Dr. Michael Huang, Kentucky Sports Radio

Kentucky’s Collin Chandler missed some time during summer practice, but he’s back on the hardwood as he gears up for his sophomore campaign.

According to KSR’s Jack Pilgrim, Chandler returned to practice on Tuesday after dealing with an undisclosed injury.

“Collin Chandler has been out dealing with a little bit of a minor, minor, minor injury,” Pilgrim said on Tuesday night’s episode of Sources Say. “I’m told he is back, actually returned back to practice today. So that’s definitely a big positive. But wasn’t a part of that scrimmage with La Familia and some of the practices leading up and the 5-on-5s in the days since, but is officially back. That’s a great update.”

Expectations are high for Chandler going into his sophomore season. The 6-foot-5 guard appeared in 30 contests in 2024-25 as a freshman, but his game truly began to come along late in the season. Across eight games in March, Chandler averaged six points and 1.8 rebounds per outing while shooting 52.2 percent (12-23) from deep as one of the first players off the bench.

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope has talked multiple times this offseason about how his second-year players take “massive leaps.” Pope expects to see that happen with Chandler.

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“He’s so hungry right now,” Pope said back in May. “He’s been working really, really hard.”

It was around this time last year that Chandler was dealing with another offseason injury. After being away from the game of basketball for two years following his mission trip, he tweaked his hamstring last August. Luckily, that was also a minor injury. Chandler was back to dunking over Pope at Big Blue Madness by October, but that missed time was especially valuable during his ramp-up process.

At least with this offseason’s minor setback, Chandler has a year of playing college basketball already under his belt and familiarity with Pope’s system. He surely would have preferred to play in the scrimmage against La Familia, but a clean bill of health is far more important in July. It doesn’t sound like he missed much time at all, either.

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