Kerr Kriisa celebrated with UK fans after the win over Louisville. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Considering how point guard Lamont Butler played against Louisville coming off an ankle injury that forced him to miss two games, it was no wonder that Kentucky coach Mark Pope said it was an “interesting” feeling about his health.
“There’s part of me that’s like, I want him to be 100 percent healthy, and there’s part of me that, like, I don’t know if I want to get it 100 percent healthy! He was pretty good in that Louisville game,” said Pope during his press conference on Wednesday.
“We’ve been super careful, we kept him out of contact yesterday. But I think he’s over it, right? I think we move on, hopefully, with that.”
Butler had 33 points against Louisville and was 10-for-10 from the field, including 6-for-6 from 3. Kentucky does not play again until Saturday when it faces Ohio State in New York so it makes sense that Pope is not pushing Butler too hard this week, especially since UK has a 10-day break before it will play again Dec. 31 against Brown in Rupp Arena.
His full-time return comes alongside Kentucky’s seven-day break between games ahead of Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic in New York City on Saturday, followed by another ten-day break before the Wildcats take on Brown back in Lexington on December 31. There was some cushion for added rest, if necessary, but a non-contact day at practice is the extent of that for Butler, fortunately.
It’s also crucial to keep Butler healthy with backup Kerr Kriisa out indefinitely with his foot injury. He broke his foot in the second half against Gonzaga on Dec. 7. However, Pope did say Wednesday that Kriisa was able to have some physical activity this week for the first time since his injury and surgery.
“Kerr had his first day in the weight room, doing conditioning and strength training yesterday,” Pope said. “Our goal is to make that so unpleasant that he’s like, ‘I’m getting back on the court.’”
Pope emphasized again there was no set timeline for Kriisa’s return to play.
“This is a little bit of a tricky surgery. It could respond fast or it could respond slow,” Pope said. “We’re gonna do everything in our power to help, he’s gonna do everything in his power to get himself ready as soon as he can.
“Hopefully that comes sooner rather than later, but there are some things that are gonna be out of his control.”
Kentucky opens Southeastern Conference play Jan. 4 — about a month after Kriisa was injured.
One Response
Butler is the head of the snake. If he looked to pass first just a little more it would elevate his game even more. He’s averaging 4 assist a game. If he could get in the 7apg range we would be an even better team. I think it would open things up even more for Oweh, Robinson, Carr, and Brea! You can see that once he has his mind made up that he’s driving nothing is going to stop him. He also needs to work on his freethrows. There might be some games this year were we are in the single bonus and he cant miss the first free throw it can flip a game. Teams will look to foul him in close situations. It seems like he rushes his free throws for some reason.