Wildcats react to Pro Day experience: 'At the University of Kentucky, every day is a Pro Day'

The Kentucky men’s basketball program held its annual Pro Day on Tuesday in Memorial Coliseum. NBA scouts from all 30 teams were watching from the sidelines, some getting their first look at Mark Pope‘s second team at UK. It was essentially a 90-minute practice with a good chunk of 5-on-5 mixed in along the way.

We’ve already heard what the scouts in attendance thought of the Kentucky players (minus Otega Oweh and Jayden Quaintance) in action, and we at KSR did the same with our top takeaways following the event. But what did the guys who actually participated in the event think of how it went down?

For sophomore Trent Noah, who went through last year’s Pro Day, it was just another day at the office.

“It’s pretty much the same thing. It’s just regular practice with people in the stands,” Noah told KSR following a commercial shoot with Morgan & Morgan on Wednesday morning. “We kind of do our same thing no matter if there was nobody in the gym. But it’s really cool to be able to be at the University of Kentucky, and what comes with that is you get to play in front of a lot of people. That part’s really cool, but yesterday we just did our same old boring habits.”

And that’s the way it should be. If they treated it like anything more than just a regular practice, the idea of being surrounded by so many NBA scouts would only bring added nerves. It still might have taken a few players some time to find a groove, but none of them acted like they were being closely watched by dozens of scouts. Noah being able to go through the same process last year likely helped him out this time around in terms of blocking out what’s happening beyond the court.

That a wrap from UK Pro Day

Standouts:

– Andrija Jelavic
– Jasper Johnson
– Trent Noah
– Mo Dioubate
– Jaland Lowe
– Braydon Hawthorne

Jayden Quaintance (knee) was a loose participant, Otega Oweh (toe) did not play pic.twitter.com/yShLZXQmkX

— Jack Pilgrim (@JackPilgrimKSR) October 7, 2025

But what about someone like Reece Potter, who spent his first two seasons at Miami (OH) before transferring to Kentucky? Respectfully, NBA scouts aren’t exactly busting down the RedHawks’ doors to check out what they have to offer. Even though it was a new experience for him, Potter took the same approach to Pro Day that Noah did.

“It was really cool to be able to see all the NBA teams out there,” the seven-footer said. “Being able to put on this brand and put on this jersey, that’s the thing that comes along with it. It was really cool to be able to do that. But not many nerves. Another day, another practice. We didn’t treat it any different. Every day we come into work, so it’s not much different who was in the stands or anything like that.”

To little surprise, Jasper Johnson felt the exact same way. Although he’s a freshman, the former high school star has been playing in front of pro scouts for years now. His game has been praised and nitpicked since he was a junior. Besides, it’s not like Pope hasn’t already been bringing high-level NBA personnel into closed-door practices. The only real difference in Pro Day from a regular practice is the number of media members typing on laptops and taking pictures from the stands.

“At the University of Kentucky, every day is a Pro Day,” Johnson said. “Every time you look off to the sideline, there’s some NBA coach there or NBA personnel watching us. Just taking every day as a day to grow, get better, just trying to compete at a high level every time I step on the court, and everything else will take care of itself.”

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