3 things to know about Kellan Grady, Kentucky basketball's sharp-shooting 'granddad'

LEXINGTON - Kentucky basketball's 2021-22 roster received a much-needed boost in shooting ability with the addition of Davidson transfer Kellan Grady.

Here are three things to know about the Wildcat super senior teammates call grandad.

Kellan Grady is one of the most experienced players in college basketball

Before he ever played a game for Kentucky, Grady had logged more than 4,000 minutes across four seasons at Davidson. He scored 2,002 points at Davidson, appearing in 115 games with 113 starts.

Grady shot 36.6% from 3-point range across his Davidson career. As a senior, he shot 38.2% from 3-point range.

The 6-foot-5, 205-pound guard has played college basketball for so long he actually played a game against Kentucky in the 2018 NCAA Tournament that also featured Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kevin Knox and Hamidou Diallo.

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Grady scored 16 points on 4-of-14 shooting against Kentucky as a freshman, earning the notice of UK coach John Calipari.

“They’d do fine,” Calipari said after the game when asked how Grady and Davidson teammate Peyton Aldridge would fair in the Southeastern Conference. “… I had friends of mine from within the league (who) told me, ‘You know, they have guys that could play for you guys.’ And they do.”

At Kentucky, Grady has had to adjust to a new role where the offense is not played through him nearly as often as it was at Davidson. After a slow start, Grady has flourished, emerging as one of the best shooters in the SEC.

Kellan Grady's teammates call him grandad

At 24 years old, Grady is used to a fair amount of ribbing from his younger teammates. UK freshman point guard TyTy Washington has particularly embraced that role, only referring to Grady as "granddad" in interviews.

"He knows he’s a granddad," Washington said earlier this season. "He’s OG. I’m like little brother. He’s always looking out."

Grady has pushed back a little on the description of him as an old soul, but he has mostly taken the ribbing with good humor. There is at least one area he acknowledges the moniker is earned.

"I will never be on TikTok,” Grady said. “I couldn’t care less about TikTok.”

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Kellan Grady founded a social justice initiative at Davidson

The grandson of South African anti-apartheid activists, Grady founded an initiative he called College Athletes for Respect and Equality (CARE) after attending a demonstration against a traveling hate group that had visited Davidson.

The purpose of the initiative, which partners with Davidson's Maimonides Institute for Medicine, Ethics and the Holocaust, is to "raise awareness about systemic racial injustice." As part of the initiative, Grady and his Davidson teammates visited local elementary schools to read to students and talk to them about about racial injustice.

Grady is still working on ways to bring the project to Kentucky, but after joining the program he acknowledged the brighter spotlight of playing for UK could help his off-court goals.

"It’s a larger platform that I think benefits when the whole point is to try to have an impact on the younger generation and kids that look up to athletes," Grady said. "I’ve said it countless times that I really looked up to college athletes when I was a kid. Social justice and racial equality are real imperative issues, so I think to hear insight and hear college athletes reach out to kids on the basic concept of equality I think can hit home with kids in sixth, seventh, fourth, fifth grade."

Email Jon Hale at jahale@courier-journal.com; Follow him on Twitter at @JonHale_CJ.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kellan Grady: Kentucky basketball guard earns granddad nickname