Vicky Graff Photo
Tre Mitchell’s diversified skill set has made him much more valuable to coach John Calipari’s team than anyone probably could have imagined when he transferred from West Virginia to Kentucky.
He’s a nifty passer. He can knock down a 3-point shot. He’s been a consistent rebounder and someone who has been able to guard multiple positions. His leadership and poise have also been a constant calming influence for Kentucky’s freshmen.
He’s missed 4 1/2 of the last five games. He didn’t play against Gonzaga and Vanderbilt because the chronic back pain bothering him since SEC play started got too much to handle. He played about half of the game against Ole Miss before spraining the trapezius muscle in his upper back that forced him to miss games against Auburn and LSU.
“He battled through the back pain for a while and both his mother and I told him he had to shut it down,” said Tony Bergeron, Mitchell’s stepfather, on WPBK-FM Thursday. “He was not listening. Finally it got to the point that I had to tell Tre he was not doing anything to help the team.
“I thought he came back a little too early (against Ole Miss), got hit and sprained that shoulder like it was a football injury. The problem now is that it is ridiculously painful. Yesterday (Wednesday) he put a hoodie on for the first time (since the sprain) and tried to shoot but he was not ready.”
Bergeron said normally if you leave a sprain like that alone and do nothing it should heal in one to two weeks.
“The good thing is having to wait for the shoulder to heal is giving him necessary rest for his back,” Bergeron said. “He needs to just wait until his back is 100 percent. That could be shortly. It’s hard to say because Tre wants to be back and he has to have a good reason not to play. But you can’t tell him he is out Saturday (against Alabama) until he can’t do something.”
5 Responses
It’s still a little difficult for me to do a big "buy in" on extent of all these injuries last few yrs also. Tre seemed to be moving up/down/around on bench 2 games ago. I know back problems can be problematic because I have a little ownership also. Still think many of today’s players and elites do have a higher preference for pampering and self decision making than in the past.
We need him badly but until recovered he shouldn’t play . I could tell when he came back he wasn’t himself. Hope for a full recovery soon he is the key for this team .
Yeah, need a healthy Tre Mitchell badly Crit
Yeah, just keep being the sideline entertainment for the rest of the season.
I’d rather have him health! I say let him sit all rest of regular season if need be.