Kellan Grady played against UK, now excited to play for UK at NCAA

Kellan Grady isn’t new to the NCAA Tournament. In fact, Grady and Davion Mintz are Kentucky’s only two players who have been to the NCAA Tournament, although neither attended the Dance with Kentucky.

In Grady’s one career March Madness appearance, he danced against Kentucky in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Playing 32 minutes a game as a freshman, Grady helped Davidson win the Atlantic 10 Championship and earn a spot opposite of the Wildcats in the 5-seed/12-seed game.

Kentucky got the better of Grady’s other Wildcats that year, but he scored 16 points in a first-round game decided by only five points in the end. It was the game that snapped Kentucky’s record for consecutive games with a 3-pointer.

Now a Kentucky Wildcat, Grady appeared on an NCAA Tournament stage for the first time since his first time during yesterday’s pregame press conference. When asked about the long-awaited return and being there in new colors, Grady replied, “For me, it’s a new level of excitement because I’m with a different team. And we’ve gone through adversity, and we’ve gone through an entire season together. It was a new level of excitement to go through this and be on Kentucky.”

Looking back, Grady called it “amazing” to make the tournament with Davidson and play against Kentucky in his NCAA debut four years ago. “My whole team was on an emotional high because we had just won the Atlantic 10 Tournament and we felt really good, and we truly thought we were going to beat Kentucky,” he said.

And though his team came up short, he still recalls the emotions of playing in March Madness, particularly as an underdog, and the mindset of a lower seed. “We were fairly confident,” he explained. “We had a pretty good spirit about us and a level of excitement that I think ran through the whole team.”

Now with a legit contender, Grady hopes to go much farther in the bracket, all the way to the national championship in New Orleans. “I’m excited to embrace this challenge with our team and try our best to take care of business,” he said.

Until Kentucky begins that run later tonight, take a look back at Grady and Davidson versus Kentucky out in Boise in 2018.