Q&A with Sacha Killeya-Jones

In late August Cats Illustrated met with Sacha Killeya-Jones to talk about his time on UK's campus, expectations for the season and a flashback to his recruitment and why he ultimately picked Kentucky.

The 6-foot-10, 230-pound forward from Virginia also spoke about a controversial picture that led to the police being contacted.

Cats Illustrated: How has it been being on campus?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: It's great. It's awesome being on campus and getting used to it and everything. This summer helped us all get accommodated being in college in general. Aside from the basketball it's a big jump from high school to college for any student, so just being here and getting to classes and the workouts on top of that have been crazy.

It's been a lot of hard work but it's been all good getting prepared for the season.

Cats Illustrated: I know you went to a boarding school but how has being away from home been?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: Boarding school I was just two hours from my house so I could drive home on the weekends and see everybody. Now I'm seven and a half, eight hours now, but I'm used to being away from home. It's not been a big difference. I learned to do my laundry so it's been pretty good for me and gotten me used to it.

Cats Illustrated: Have there been any surprises about being a UK student-athlete?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: I knew fans were going to be crazy in a good way, they're really supportive and everything. I knew the workouts would be crazy hard. A lot of the things I expected coming in have been pretty much the same. The workouts have been even harder than I expected. It's obviously a big jump up from high school, like I said. The conditioning has been a lot of hard work but it's been good. It's been really good. I've gotten stronger, faster and in shape since I got here in the early summer.

Cats Illustrated: Have things calmed down with fans since you committed to UK and since you've been on campus?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: I think so. It's calmed down a little bit. Still anything you tweet will get a lot of impressions and everything. 15,000 followers on Twitter, I'm used to having 500. Anything I tweet, even if it has nothing to do with basketball, I'll tweet a song lyric and it will get 40 retweets. It's something you kind of get used to while watching what you tweet and make sure everything is fine and I'm not tweeting anything off the wall or crazy. It's just getting used to it.

Cats Illustrated: Is that annoying having to worry about everything you do on social media?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: I wouldn't say annoying. Sometimes you see that but at the same time I'm blessed to be in the position that I'm in and to have so many people care about what I'm saying and have people listen to me. I kinda have a platform in some ways. I'm blessed to be in the position I'm in so I'm not complaining about anything.

Cats Illustrated: What was your initial reaction when you saw the tweet with the gun?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: I honestly wasn't too worried about it. My mom was more, 'You're not going to say that to my son.' I don't really know what my reaction was. I was like, 'OK, he has a gun to a teddy bear.' I wasn't too worried about it, but I just let my mom handle it and everything like that. I think any mom would react the same if something happened like that.

Cats Illustrated: Was it eye-opening to see people can become crazy in this rivalry?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: Yeah, I didn't realize people cared about it so much. I don't think any of us realized until after I tweeted it. We didn't realize how big of a deal it was. Even V.J. (V.J. King, Louisville freshman) was in the gym with us when we took the picture. We said 'Hey V.J., L's down!' and he said 'Alright, L's up!' We took the picture and Mark the photographer sent it to me and I tweeted it.

It got like a 1,000 retweets in 25-30 minutes. I turned my phone off because it was glitching my phone and I couldn't use it. I was living with my little brother and I was like, 'Are you serious with how crazy this is blowing up?' So I just turned my phone off and it went like that for days and days and weeks and weeks. It kept blowing up. It was eye opening.

Cats Illustrated: So now you know how crazy the rivalry is?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: Yeah, I grew up around the Duke and UNC rivalry so I knew rivalries were serious but I didn't realize how big like Kentucky and Louisville was. I honestly didn't realize how big of a deal it was until then.

Cats Illustrated: You all play at Louisville this year, how do you feel about that game?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: Yeah, I know. It's going to be crazy. It's going to be a really fun game. I'm looking forward to that.

Cats Illustrated: What has your mom meant to you in regards to your basketball career? Was she big in dealing with your recruitment?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: She has been really supportive, same with my dad and even my little brother. They've been really supportive of me. None of them pushed me saying that I needed to go here and saying this was better for me. I would get back from a visit and they would ask me what I thought, if I liked coach, if I liked this and that. We would just talk about it. And they told me if that's how I feel then we'll do this, this and this.

They never told me I needed to cut a coach off because they were talking to me too much. They put it all on me while helping me with it, it was always my decision.

Cats Illustrated: Why did you commit to Virginia when you did?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: I had just taken a visit to Virginia and I really liked Coach Bennett. Coach Bennett is a great guy. I was talking to Kyle Guy and all their commits and I felt like it was a good fit for me at the time. I felt like it was the best fit for me but then a couple months later I thought I needed to take a step back and make sure it was the best fit.

I had committed early in my junior year and I knew I had another year and a half of this so I wanted to make sure it was the best fit for me. I didn't want to regret anything and worry about what could have been. I took a step back and made sure it was the best fit. I took more visits, talked to other coaches while still talking to Virginia.

I took a visit to Kentucky and a couple other schools and when I came to Kentucky I was like 'This is what I want. This is the place I want to be and this is the place for me.'

Cats Illustrated: What was it about UK that made you feel that way?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: Coach Cal is the most straight up coach I've ever talked to in the recruiting process. He was really honest with me. He didn't promise anything. He told me if I came here I was going to work for everything I get. He didn't promise any minutes, any plays and he told everybody that. I really appreciated that honesty and it stood out. For how big time he is, he could say 'If you come here I'll get you drafted in one year, I promise.' He could say that but he didn't. I really appreciated that.

Cats Illustrated: So it was refreshing not to have a coach suck up to you?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: You hear all the horror stories of how nice they are during the recruiting process but you get there and they're a completely different person. Coach Cal hasn't been that at all. He's been the same person since the first time I talked with him.

Cats Illustrated: What was the most outlandish thing promised to you during your recruitment?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: I tweeted something one night, I love drinking Gatorade before bed. A coach tweeted me sending a screenshot promising that if I came there I would have Gatorade every single night before I went to bed. I was promised a manager- I have a video in my phone of the manager promising to bring me Gatorade every single night. He said we'd have a whole refrigerator full of Gatorade in my room. I said it wasn't that big of a deal, I can just buy Gatorade.

It was just stuff like that. It was kind of crazy.

Cats Illustrated: What will you bring to the table this year?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: I think my versatility is the thing that really helps me the most. Being able to play the five, stretch-four and all that stuff. Being able to create mismatches offensively, guard guards coming off the pick-and-rolls, guard bigs. I think my versatility is the biggest thing. Just getting stronger and creating mismatches in general.

Cats Illustrated: You told me in Chicago you loved playing on the post, are you doing that here?

Sacha Killeya-Jones: Definitely. That comes with the strength of Coach Rob and just getting stronger. I'm getting more used to playing down there and that's been good for me.