Collin Chandler got his first real taste of being PG1 in Georgetown loss

With Jaland Lowe and Denzel Aberdeen watching from the sidelines, Collin Chandler was tossed into the fire as Kentucky’s lead point guard in Thursday’s exhibition loss to Georgetown. Even if the game doesn’t count in the record book, it was still his first career college start.

The returns weren’t exactly inspiring from a strictly box score perspective, but there were promising signs for someone playing out of position with limited time to prepare for it. Chandler finished with 11 points on 2-9 shooting (6-8 FT), seven rebounds, three assists, and five turnovers in a team-high 28 minutes. He was a -7 in the plus-minus, which wasn’t all that bad compared to the rest of his teammates, especially when he was on the court so often.

“With Collin Chandler, the interesting thing is he played the most minutes on the team,” Head coach Mark Pope said after Kentucky’s 84-70 loss. “While playing the most minutes on the team, he was one of the leaders in plus-minus in a game where we got kinda run out of our own gym. Even with that, he’s 0-5 from three, he’s got five turnovers. 

“But still, he’s a -7 where we got a lot of -16s and -10s and -9s on the scoresheet. He has a positive impact on the court. He’s going to get way better. This was a first time for him. I think he’s going to be an outstanding player.”

Chandler dabbled in some ball-handling duties as a freshman last season. He mentioned during the offseason that he was doing more point guard work in practice. But having to go up against a pair of Preseason All-Big East guards in Malik Mack and KJ Lewis did him no favors in helping him find his footing in unfamiliar territory. Those two lit up the Wildcats for a combined 41 points on 17-29 shooting.

While it might not seem like it now, this opportunity could turn out to be beneficial for Chandler in the long run. Learning more about the point guard role should only help him with his overall game once he slides back into his natural position whenever Lowe and/or Aberdeen return. It’s important to remember that he still hasn’t played much college basketball either after coming on late in the season in 2024-25.

“There is no harder position than point guard, and in the absence of our two point guards, he took that role and he was not afraid,” Andrija Jelavić said postgame. “It’s good for him to not only play as a shooting guard but also as a point guard to dribble the ball, make a decision, and I think that’s really good for his development.”

This is exactly what exhibitions are for: experimenting with lineups, toying with things you might not otherwise do during the middle of the regular season. We saw last March how impactful Chandler can be on the floor for Kentucky. His performance against Georgetown was far from perfect, but it’s tough to improve without growing pains.

“I thought Collin was exactly what you saw tonight, both good and bad,” Pope said. “He’s going to be a terrific, terrific player.”

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.