Jonah Wooten with Koby Brea Saturday.
Jonah Wooten wasn’t sure what to expect at the Club Blue meet-and-greet with Kentucky basketball coaches and players at the Kentucky Horse Park Saturday.
“I definitely didn’t have any thoughts of donating to any NIL fund until coach (Mark) Pope got the job,” said Wooten, a 22-year-old recent Eastern Kentucky University graduate. “The hype and fanbase coming together increased my interest and then when they announced there would be an event like that Club Blue members would get to go to, that was the final thing that got me on board to join.”
Wooten went by himself to Saturday’s event but quickly ran into people he knew as he thought he might.
“I just wanted to check it out and see what it would be like,” Wooten said. “Once I got there the line to meet the players was actually pretty short because it was so well organized.”
He got to spend time talking to UK assistant coaches Mark Fox and Cody Fueger. He thought it was nice to have a “normal conversation” with a coach instead of the usual “quick picture and see you later” that had become common in recent years at UK.
He was even more impressed with the players when he had a chance to meet most of them.
“The players were all super nice. They wanted to know your name. They were really appreciative of fans being there to see them,” Wooten said.
He felt that Collin Chandler, Koby Brea and Andrew Carr “stuck out for wanting to know about fans” and taking time to get to know them.
“I was really impressed with all of them. The players didn’t feel like they were doing fans a favor coming to an event like this which I think says a lot about them as people and the coaching staff in terms of letting them know what is a priority about being at Kentucky,” Wooten said.
Club Blue organizers had BYU transfer Jaxson Robinson and Kentucky Mr. Basketball Travis Perry in a larger room to accommodate longer lines.
“They anticipated well because those lines wrapped a long way and I did not get to meet them but I met the other players and they were all great,” Wooten, a former Madison Southern High School basketball player, said.
Wooten was not surprised that Pope was accessible and had players who felt the same way. Wooten and his girlfriend, UK student Emma Ballinger, actually met Pope on campus a few days after he was hired.
“I go visit her at UK and we usually take a walk around campus,” Wooten said. “Two days after his press conference we walked by the Craft Center and here comes Pope. I told him we were not stalking him but he was super nice, asked what we were studying and took a picture with us.”
Wooten talked to several fans at Saturday’s event who sensed a noticeable difference in the players and coaches.
“Somebody said it didn’t have the feel again around the program that anything done was a favor to the fanbase by just being here. There was no more of that,” Wooten said. “They all acted as if the fans were doing them a favor by cheering and donating money. That’s probably the biggest impression I took from all this.”
2 Responses
I never got the impression from any of the players at the Women’s Clinics the last 15 years that they felt they were doing us a favor just by being there. Some players were more personable than others but that is true in any aspect of life.
Glad the players on this team seem to appreciate the fan support.
Glad you have felt that way Karen. I do tend to think at times that attitude is something I have felt but dobut that will ever happen under Pope