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John Calipari doesn’t have a great track history with predicting when players will return from injuries but he doubled down on sophomore Ugonna Onyenso’s return during his radio show Monday night.
Calipari said on his pregame radio show Saturday before UK beat Penn that Onyenso was starting to practice for the first time since injuring his foot in Canada during a scrimmage before UK’s first game there in July.
Monday night Calipari told Tom Leach that he hopes the 7-foot center will play Saturday against North Carolina in Atlanta.
“Ugo will start practicing this week. Will he play this weekend? I’m hoping he’s able to give us something if we need him,” Calipari told Leach.
“We’re playing a team this weekend that’s big. Big players, strong players. It’ll be a challenge.”
North Carolina features preseason All-America center Armando Bacot who is averaging 15.9 points and 11.9 rebounds per game this season.
The 6-11 Bacot is a proven low-post scorer that will be a challenge for Tre Mitchell to defend or even freshman Aaron Bradshaw with his size and length.
North Carolina junior forward Harrison Ingram, a Stanford transfer, also averages over six rebounds per game.
7 Responses
That would be 5 more fouls, 5 more rebounds, 5 more points, and 2 or 3 blocked shots. That could amount to be the difference in this game.
Absolutely, plus we know exactly what Onyenso is.. a lane/rim protector. If he plays D protects the lane & gets clean up points, & reb thats all we need. Bradahaw is very thin & inexperienced. Penns big man out played him & ran circles around bshaw. he will prob struggle against big/top competition in SEC. Im looking for Onyenso to be startibg come conf play.
Bradshaw had 17 points, 11 rebounds in 29 minutes vs Penn. Spinoso had 10 points and 9 Rebounds in 34 minutes. Hardly running circles around Bradshaw.
And that’s a fact Jack! ! 🙂
Wiggz you must have watch a different game.
We can have a quality 7 footer on the floor at all times.
That’s amazing. I heard a couple months ago that Bradshaw would Never play and Ugo would Never play again for the Cats. Oh that’s right; it was all "Fan" chatter.
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