Vicky Graff Photo
Once again, Kentucky will be without guards Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson and Kerr Kriisa when they play at Vanderbilt tonight – based on information released by UK on the SEC Availability Report released on Tuesday.
Not having Butler again is a blow because he not only is UK’s best defensive player — and one of the best in the nation — but he is also the floor leader who initiates the offense and missing him was very costly at the end of Saturday’s loss at Texas.
Evan Miyakawa has the data to back up how important Butler is. He is a stats guru and his website — EvanMiya.com — has a plethora of numbers and information. On Tuesday he released numbers that showed Kentucky has some of the best players in college basketball.
He ranked the Top 25 players with the “best statistical output this year, adjusted for opponent strength faced” and Kentucky’s strong strength of schedule certainly helped the three Wildcats.
He had Butler ranked No. 8 nationally, Otega Oweh 12th and Amari Williams 13th making UK the only team with three players ranked in the top 15 (Auburn did have five in the top 25).
Butler won’t play again tonight due to a shoulder injury. He has missed six games this season, including four in SEC play where UK has went 1-3. The Cats won at Tennessee without him but lost games to Arkansas, Ole Miss and Texas when he was out. He also missed the last nine minutes of UK’s second win over Tennessee when he hurt his shoulder again.
“It really does show you how much UK lacks when Butler is out,” Miya told me.
Most consider Jaxson Robinson UK’s best offensive player but he did not rank as high as the other three players. Before injuring his wrist, he was averaging 15.1 points per game and hitting 47 percent from the field.
2 Responses
The number of players injured and the recovery times are both extreme, and I hope are under some type of evaluation. There is still some mystery there, but I think many of our losses are results of bad BB fundamentals as well as the injuries. There is still time to have a very good first season for coach and staff and let’s hope it starts tonight because Saturday not looking too optimistic.
He’s the difference between us being just s tournament team to a final 4 caliber team! He’s that important to our team. Not for his offense for his full court man to man hound the opposing point guard every second! Its a very tiring defense to both him and the opposing point guard! We need Kriisa back to but I don’t think he will be back this year a fractured bone in your foot isn’t supposed to be ran on for at least 3-4 months at the bare minimum. Its been 2 and a half months for him and then he has to get back into game condition! The only thing I could possibly see is him come back for the SEC tournament. If he’s not back by then his college career might be over depending a medical redshirt. Which I hope he gets if he can’t return he would be the starting point guard next year!