Jaland Lowe is a self-described gym rat: "I just love playing basketball, man."

It doesn’t matter what time of the day Mark Pope pops his head into the Joe Craft Center practice gyms — there’s a good chance he’ll see Jaland Lowe on the hardwood, putting in extra work.

Lowe, who transferred to Kentucky in the offseason after two seasons at Pitt, feels as though he was quite literally born to play the game of basketball.

“That’s from where I grew up,” Lowe said Monday when asked where his workhorse mentality comes from. “My dad was an AAU coach when I was born. My godfather is John Lucas. I was born in the gym. I went three times a day, six a.m., 12, five o’clock. That’s just what I do, and it’s just naturally built in me.”

Lowe isn’t alone, either. A new era of the Breakfast Club is forming on campus.

“And it’s amazing to see that these guys (his Kentucky teammates), a lot of these guys, have that built into them also. It’s what I love. I ain’t got nothing else to do right now… It’s just the gym and the crib right now and hanging out with these guys.”

Born and raised in Texas, surrounded by basketball from the moment his life began, Lowe has always been immersed in the game. He watched the likes of De’Aaron Fox and the Harrison twins, also Texas natives, come up the same way as him and later thrive at a Blue Blood program. Kentucky became his dream school because of it. But Lowe’s ultimate goal is to make it to the NBA, and that requires going above and beyond his peers.

Luckily, he’s had some company in the practice gym so far this summer.

“I found out that a couple of them are more gym rats than I thought, for sure,” Lowe said of his teammates. “And I love that because I’m a gym rat myself. So coming up late nights, it’s like okay, I got a couple of guys that want to come in late night but then just off the court, guys want to hang out, just chill, have fun, play video games, talk, do whatever. It’s been an amazing experience with these guys.”

We’re only a few weeks into summer practice, but reports of early standouts have already been creeping out of the gym. Lowe’s name has been mentioned as one of the newcomers catching eyes. He doesn’t see it that way, though — this is just business as usual.

“I guess people want to say I’m excelling, but I mean, I just love playing basketball, man,” Lowe said. “I love coming to work every day and just hanging out with my guys, going out and playing the sport I love, and then also being at Kentucky.

“I guess that’s just who I am. I come and show up every day and put in my work, it’s something that I love, and I’m also seeing that these guys are putting in the work. They just want to get better.”

Lowe was an All-ACC Third Team member last season on a Pitt team that won just 17 games. But with more talent surrounding him in Lexington, expectations are high for the 6-foot-2 point guard. It’s only early July, but Kentucky’s PG1 already seems to be exceeding them.

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