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For most of the season, transfer Tre Mitchell has been one of Kentucky’s best players.
Recently ESPN analyst Jay Bilas called him UK’s “most indispensable player” because of his versatile skill set.
However, in losses to Florida and Tennessee last week, Mitchell was a combined 2-for-13 from the field in 62 combined minutes of play and scored just five points. He did have 14 rebounds, four assists, one block and one steal.
He also struggled offensively in the previous game when UK won at Arkansas when he was 3-for-10 from the field but still finished with nine points, 11 rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one block.
But go back to the three previous games against South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi State. He was a combined 18-for-23 from the field, including 3-for-4 from 3. He had 13 rebounds, nine assists, and four blocks in 106 minutes of play.
“He struggled a little bit,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said after Mitchell’s scoreless outing against Tennessee. “We’ll sit down with him and figure it out. Last game I stuck with him way too long and this game I said, ‘Look, maybe it’s not your game, and we got to get you back.’”
Mitchell is averaging 12.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game this season. He is shooting 50 percent overall from the field and 34 percent from 3 where he’s made 25 treys. He also leads the team in total minutes played and averages 33.7 minutes per game.
Calipari has talked about injuries to Adou Thiero, D.J. Wagner, and Justin Edwards which have caused them to miss games. However, sources indicate that Mitchell is far from 100 percent. He has been playing with back issues and has been taking treatments before and after practice.
The back pain has kept him from “moving the same way and he’s trying to push through it in games” despite the pain. The pain apparently has gotten “significantly worse” in the last two games and it has been easy to see that Mitchell has not been the same player on the court. He’s not been nearly as active and his shooting has been off. However, he’s been playing at way less than 100 percent, according to my source, but wants to play to help the team.
Will Calipari have to give Mitchell a game or a week off to rest his back? If so, this might be the week with a game at Vanderbilt on Tuesday and a home game with Gonzaga on Saturday. On paper, those probably are the two “easiest” games left on UK’s schedule and to have any hopes of a successful postseason run the Cats have to have a healthy, productive Mitchell because he has been the team leader because of all he does to help make others better.
3 Responses
When I was at Florida game I saw Mitchell and a Thiero have back braces put on them by the trainer when they came off the court.
He better give him a break playing that many minutes with a back injury is unheard of… they need to put Burks in and let him run the 4 some. Here is another head scratcher to me big z dominates one game in limited minutes he plays 5 minutes the next game 3 minutes the game after that and 3 minutes the last game. Why does calapari do this?? Is he that big of a bone head foreal?
He had these back problems and Califraudi didn’t know about that? What a shocker there. I am trying to not H Cal for the damage he has done to the program but do find it very enticing.