Lucas Happy to 'Finally' Be at UK
Once upon a time, Jai Lucas almost became a Kentucky Wildcat. A guard from Houston, Lucas was recruited by former UK head coach Tubby Smith, and he was ready to come to Lexington.
Then, fate intervened. Smith departed UK for Minnesota and Lucas re-opened his recruitment.
“I was coming. I was coming to Kentucky until Coach (Tubby) Smith left and took the Minnesota job,” Lucas said on Wednesday. “That kind of left me in scramble mode because I had made my mind up for months and that’s how I kind of ended up at Florida.”
Now, about 13 years later, Lucas is finally in the fold at Kentucky. He has been hired as a special assistant to head coach John Calipari with a focus on recruiting. Lucas is excited to finally call Lexington home.
“If you are passionate and want to be at the highest level there is in basketball, especially college basketball, I mean, it’s hard to say no to Kentucky in general,” Lucas said. “It doesn’t matter if it is as a recruit or coming back as any staff position.”
As for working for Calipari, Lucas is very excited about the opportunity.
“Just talking to Coach Calipari, who I’ve followed forever, and I know everything he is about, he’s been a family friend for a while with him and my dad. So, a lot of the stuff that he preaches about and coaches is how I was raised through my dad,” Lucas said. “He is a truth teller. He’s going to tell you the truth and he’s going to try and get the most out of you. So, he is somebody who I knew I would automatically connect with.”
Lucas keeps things pretty simple with his recruiting philosophy.
“My philosophy, and really the biggest thing is building relationships with the recruit, his family and the people around him,” Lucas said. “That’s the main thing because most of the people you’re able to recruit here at Kentucky are going to be high-level players and could be able to go anywhere in the country. You have to be able to get them to trust you and understand that when they come here that they will be somebody.”
Lucas, the son of John Lucas, who was the first draft choice in the NBA Draft in 1976 and later coached the San Antonio Spurs, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Cleveland Cavaliers, learned many lessons from his father.
“The biggest thing he’s given me is that nothing is free, you have to work for everything,” the younger Lucas said. “If you want something done, you can do it yourself. That is the biggest thing I’ve taken from him is just watching him get up at 5 o’clock every morning as long as I can remember and not coming home until 9 o’clock and he’s just out working and helping people and trying to get people to be better people.”
And as for his recruitment to UK from many years ago, he’s still not hearing the end of picking against UK. In fact, Patrick Patterson, who was in the same class and, of course, ultimately selected the Cats, has given Lucas an especially hard time, in good fun.
“Yeah, I got a message. I think it was the same message that he put under the school’s Instagram account,” Lucas said of Patterson, who remains a good friend. “He texted me and said, ‘You’re finally doing the right thing. It may be years later, but welcome to the family.’ So, it has been really exciting. I have had a bunch of messages from former players, and just people tied with the university and I’ve been very, very, very appreciative of that.”
Lucas is excited to finally be a part of the UK family, even though it took a little longer to get here than he originally planned.
