{"id":604544,"date":"2026-02-15T13:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604544\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T13:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:04:12","slug":"collin-chandler-tried-to-save-kentucky-again-at-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604544\/","title":{"rendered":"Collin Chandler tried to save Kentucky again at Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky\u2019s comeback vs. Florida fell short<\/a> today, but it\u2019s not for lack of trying on Collin Chandler<\/a>\u2018s part. Down 13 with five minutes to go, Captain Clutch once again donned his cape and tried to pull the Cats back into the game, hitting three of his career-high five three-pointers. The third cut Florida\u2019s lead to five with 36.8 seconds to go, but there would be no miracle today in Gainesville. Even so, you have to tip your cap to Chandler, who proved once again that he excels under pressure.<\/p>\n

It was a career day for the sophomore wing. He finished with a career-high five threes on seven attempts, tying his career high of 18 points, which he\u2019s hit three times in the last seven games. Today was his 15th game of the season with multiple made threes. He also tied his career high in steals, with three. I\u2019m sure Chandler would trade all of those stats for a win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he had a terrific performance tonight,\u201d Mark Pope said in his postgame press conference. \u201cI thought it was just a little bit sticky the first few minutes, but I thought he was \u2014 I mean, he\u2019s elite. You know, his numbers are impressive, and he\u2019s making hard shots for us. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, he cuts so hard, he actually has a ton of gravity. Just as a cutter, we\u2019re just using him as a simple cutter right now, but as we move forward, we\u2019ll be able to even trick that up a little bit. So, it\u2019s not just that he\u2019s really efficient offensively in this game, but he also created a lot of gravity and openings for other guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Pope said, Chandler\u2019s second-half performance is even more impressive when you consider how much he struggled at the start. Chandler could not fight through screens early on, allowing Xaivian Lee<\/a> to score seven points in the first five minutes. Lee finished with a game-high 22 points, including four threes. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Collin was a little rushed early in the game,\u201d Pope said during his postgame conversation with Tom Leach. \u201cI know he\u2019d like to take back some plays early in the game, but I think after he got over that first rotation, I thought he was really good, and clearly, he shot the ball well. We probably missed on describing his defensive assignment most of the night. That\u2019s on me more than it\u2019s on him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even after a shaky start, Chandler found his footing and tried to save the Cats again. A win wasn\u2019t in the cards today, but it\u2019s only a matter of time until we get another Captain Clutch moment \u2014 hopefully, with Kentucky not down by double digits. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve been put in positions that I can be successful in, positions I\u2019m comfortable with, positions in every single day practice, and so I think that\u2019s the biggest thing, is not doing anything out of the ordinary that we don\u2019t do every day in practice,\u201d Chandler told reporters. <\/p>\n

\u201cCollin is a guy \u2014 there\u2019s no secret, he does every single rep, every single day,\u201d Pope said. \u201cHe goes as hard as he can. It\u2019s going to continue to translate, and he\u2019s going to get better and better and better. But the game wasn\u2019t fast for him once he got over the initial thrust because of how he does every single rep.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentucky\u2019s comeback vs. Florida fell short today, but it\u2019s not for lack of trying on Collin Chandler\u2018s part.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,14351],"class_list":{"0":"post-604544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-collin-chandler-22-farmington"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116074792096811985","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}