Andrew Carr, left, believes he's ready to contribute a lot more tonight at Ole Miss.
Kentucky hopes to continue a trend at Ole Miss tonight that has enabled the Cats to go 4-1 in games following a loss so far this season.
The Cats were stunned at home by Arkansas on Saturday and are a slight underdog tonight at Ole Miss (16-3,). The No. 25 Rebels opened SEC play with wins over Georgia, LSU, Arkansas and Alabama but since then have lost to Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Missouri and Auburn with only one win over Texas.
Kentucky (15-6, 4-4 SEC) understands the need to regroup much like it did at Tennessee a week ago following a loss to Vanderbilt.
Forward Andrew Carr, who has been battling a back injury, believes the Cats can continue the bounce back trend tonight.
“We have done a great job so far this year about trying to turn the page and understand that it’s never as good as it seems and it’s never as bad as it seems. You go through so many different emotions throughout a season,” Carr said Monday. “We feel like we know how good we are, regardless of how it goes.
“At this point, we’ve just got to continue to get better and we know that. I feel like we’ve been able to grow throughout the year and really focus on things we want to do. I feel like that’s why we’ve been able to respond game after game so far this year. And we’re excited to do so again on Tuesday.”
Carr believes his back injury which forced him to miss the loss at Vanderbilt, only the second time in 139 games during his collegiate career that he missed a game, is progressing. He played only 1 1/2 minutes in UK’s win at Tennessee but did get back on the court for 15 minutes against Arkansas and had three points and four rebounds.
He indicated Monday that “out of nowhere” he started having back spasms just before SEC play started. He averaged 10 points, four rebounds and 24 minutes per game in UK’s first five SEC games while playing through the pain before he had to start missing playing time.
“I had a good week leading up to Vanderbilt and ended up not playing in that game. Felt like that gave me enough time to really calm those down and allow my back to settle in a little bit to where it has been and we’re in a good spot,” Carr said.
He said Monday he is “feeling good” after going through his tough stretch.
“I’ve spent a lot of time with our trainers and been able to recover a little bit here and starting to stabilize a little bit and feel a whole lot better. I’m in a good spot,” Carr said.
4 Responses
Carr is a reall baller. He is really missed when not healthy!
“We feel like we know how good we are, regardless of how it goes. That sounds like a losers mentality to me. Not trying to push the swing but you win no matter what…Carr is a tough cookie. What he played through 95% of other people would have sat out. Not having Butler is bad enough and not having Carr 100% made it even worse. I just don’t think were a good team without Butler. Point. Blank. Period. He is the straw that stirs the drink. We not.only need his great defense but not having him on offense hurts almost just as bad especially if we are.not making shots. When Butler isn’t on the floor we are very bad defensively and just average on offense. If Brea Robinson aren’t hitting there 3s we are doomed without Butler. The only thing that offsets Butler being out is us making our shots. Our defense really struggles because its hard for us to keep up with a play making point guard with all bigger guards and forwards on the court. If we had Kriisa I wouldn’t even sweat any of these problems because he’s a great backup point guard. But we literally have no point guards outside of Kriisa and Butler. Perry is good in little stints but he’s not ready yet. He can shoot the ball but he’s not very good at passing the ball and he’s terrible on defense. When he comes in opposing teams come.right at him. He can hold up for a couple of plays but then the truth is exposed. Kentucky 91 Ole Miss 82. If our 3s aren’t falling Ole Miss 86 Kentucky 81…
With Carr coming back, Alamonor has disappeared. With Williams having good games, Garrison has disappeared. Brea cannot guard anyone and cannot get his shot off playing hero ball. Not playing in the Arkansas game has dashed Noah’s confidence. The word is out…hit Kentucky in the mouth hard and tell will step back looking for the refs to bail them out. That didn’t happen in the first half, hence the 27 point deficit at one time. We just don’t have the want to when it comes to defense and physical play.
We will beat South Carolina and Tennessee, trust me. The Texas and Vandy games will tell what we can expect to finish the season…but everyone is going to come at us hard to start the game. Can we get comfortable with physical play? The next 4 games will tell us.
With a little luck, we may have Butler back by the Vandy game. He may not be in game shape but at least he can play 5 minutes and sit 5 minutes play 5 minutes in the first half and then see how he feels for the second half. It will help him have a home game before going to Bama and Oklahoma. Getting him back to full strength by SEC tourney time would be huge.