Mark Pope says Collin Chandler "earned" his highlight moment against Nicholls

Kentucky may have had a rough offensive showing in the first half on Tuesday against Nicholls, but the second half, they started rolling once Collin Chandler was off the ball and Denzel Aberdeen took over for Chandler at the point guard spot. But what came with it was the special moment of a Collin Chandler dunk that not only had the entire arena buzzing, or even just Big Blue Nation. It was talked about around the sports world.

Chandler's dunk was so impressive, it had rapper Lil Wayne talking about it after the game, and the dunk was also featured as SportsCenter's top play of the day later that night. Mark Pope knows how hard Chandler has worked to get to where he is now, as he's someone who knows all about his journey. Pope says he "earned" that special moment on Tuesday.

"There was so much video footage of that particular play, close up stuff, and you kind of see the expression on his face and he goes to finish that play, and what I like to think about those expressions is that expression is not something that he just made up. It's something that's been earned through pain and suffering, through failure and setback, through a lot of doubts. This makes me emotional, because I love this part of the game, through fighting through a lot of doubts and times where you thought, Maybe this isn't going to work. Was this the right path? Or, am I doing the right thing? Or, can I even be a good enough player to do this? When you capture those tiny little moments, it's actually really special, because that's what sports is, man."

Chandler wasn't very effective in the first half, as he had the role of being the primary point guard, but once he moved back to his natural position, you could see him becoming much more comfortable on the offensive end. He totaled 15 points on the night, including 4-7 from three-point range. To go even further with how much more comfortable he became in the second half, 11 of his 15 points came in the second, shooting a perfect 3-3 from deep, and of course, his highlight dunk.

The 6-5 guard will look to build on his special moment on Tuesday, in hopes that not only he will have more of those moments, but that his teammates will have those throughout the season.