Pitt transfer Jaland Lowe constantly talks basketball with his father. (Pittsburgh Athletics Photo)
Pitt transfer Jaland Lowe and his father, Marland, feel like they have an excellent understanding of what Kentucky basketball is about because of what the current UK coaching staff has told them along with numerous UK connections Marland Lowe has made during his 30 years working with various players and teams. However, they know they still may not be prepared for what life is really like as a UK basketball player.
“It’s one thing to hear it on the phone, so you get a good feeling about it, but to be honest with you, until you actually — we get there and we see it ourselves, it doesn’t really sink in to that level,” Marland Lowe said. “When you get a chance to look at certain videos and certain clips of things in the way that the fan base is and the support, you see it.
“But then, it’s one thing to be in the middle of it yourself. So we’re looking forward to it. I mean, we’re excited about it — Jaland is primarily — and we’re looking forward to it.”
Marland Lowe, a former college player, stopped playing one-on-one against Jaland when he was in the seventh grade.
“I had to turn into a bully against him and just start bullying him around a little bit to get to the rim, My fast twitch wasn’t as good as it used to be, so defensively I wasn’t about to be moving back and forth with him a whole lot,” the UK point guard’s father said. “He’d score a couple of times and after a while, I had to turn into old school Charles Barkley on him and just put him at the rim and that was that.
“But we still talk about basketball all the time. He’ll text me, ask me about the games on (TV) and we’re going back and forth with texts. We talk all the time about it or will go through text a whole lot.”
One Response
He will get a taste of it when big blue madness happens. When he throws a lob at the basket to Garrison and he throws it down and 22,000 fans go crazy instead of 7,000 fans at Pitt games. They weren’t even 1/3 of the crowd in lexington. He averaged about the same as Oweh on a terrible team. He can expect his scoring to dip a little but his assists to go up some too. He was averaging 16 ppg and 5 assist. At Kentucky im thinking between 12-14 ppg and 7 apg. Maybe even 8 apg with a ton of double doubles. If he facilitates first then he will be loved by the Kentucky fans. If he puts his scoring first and passes second. Watch out. Kentucky fans want a pass first point guard. That’s what we want and what we need with the roster we have. Also his 34 minutes per game will go down to around 28-29 mpg and maybe more if he’s running at the pace Pope wants him too. I just hope he doesn’t have tunnel vision thats the only thing I didn’t care for with Butler is sometimes he would miss guys because his eyes were on the basket. Lowe is much better than Butler. Butler is probably a little better at defense but Lowe is much better on offense and isn’t bad on defense I expect him to improve on his defense under Popes guidance. Pope turned Breas defense upside down he was terrible at the beginning of the season and he was good at the end. I expect Lowe to catch on faster because he’s more athletic and physical then Brea and much faster. Lowe will be a second or third team all sec type.