Putting basketball aside, the last two-plus months for Kentucky men’s basketball sophomore Daimion Collins have been tough, to say the least. The 6-foot-9 native of Texas unexpectedly lost his best friend and father, Ben Collins, on the first of Nov. 2022. Ben had recently moved into an apartment in Lexington so he could be closer to his son. They were together at UK’s practice facility the night before Ben died.
Ben Collins, only 43 at the time, passed in between Kentucky’s two exhibition games during the preseason. At the time, basketball felt irrelevant for Daimion.