Mark Pope might have been celebrating what he was seeing from Jayden Quaintance at Saturday's Father-Son Camp. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Getting to see Arizona State transfer Jayden Quaintance interacting with teammates and youngsters at Kentucky’s Father-Son Camp Saturday was a “cool experience” for Jack Pilgrim, the UK beat writer for Kentucky Sports Radio.
“I got to see Jayden Quaintance running around where he’s coming off a torn ACL and had surgery back in March,” Pilgrim said on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk. “Kind of all eyes on him, how is he looking and will he be back (when the season starts).
“He keeps saying he’s going to be back by September. He’s going to be there for the start of the regular season. How realistic is that goal? Well by looking at him jogging around and playing with the kids and playing one on one and blocking shots and hitting shots, he looked great.”
Pilgrim is a regular on the show with former UK all-SEC running back Anthony White and myself and he attended the UK Father-Son Camp to get a look at the new players.
“He looked like a guy that was definitely on track … I don’t know if it’s going to be right at the start of the season, but definitely a guy who is going to be playing at some point very, very soon,” Pilgrim said. “So that was a very exciting kind of update.”
Pilgrim felt Otega Oweh, last year’s leading scorer who recently took his name out of the NBA draft, carried himself like “I’m here for business, I’m the leader of this team.” Pilgrim felt he had a “much different look” from a year ago.
“He was kind of the new kid on the block (after transferring from Oklahoma) and just had to find his way and was not necessarily seen as a leader or a vet or anything like that (a year ago),” Pilgrim said. “So that part was really cool.”
Pilgrim said youngsters loved freshman Jasper Johnson.
“Every kid wanted to know about Jasper and have him sign autographs, take pictures,” Pilgrim said.
He said campers were constantly asking Johnson questions and “talking his ear off” but Johnson liked it.
7 Responses
How in the world does St. John’s out portal UK in the trans market? Who whudda thunk it.
Just someone’s opinion. No one knows for sure until the ball hits the floor.
Exactly!
Johnson is going to be a Kentucky Legend before its all said and done. We haven’t had any player come out of Kentucky as versatile as he is in a very long time. He could have played high school basketball in Kentucky and he could have averaged about 45 ppg. Instead he took his game to a different level playing against the best of the best. Some kids are cut out for it some are not. Let me stop right now but everyone remember me saying this… Watch Eli Ellis for South Carolina this year. A 6′ tall white kid who will dominate at South Carolina this year. The same path that others should have taken before trying to complain about getting freshman minutes at the bluest of blue bloods. Ellis didn’t play against weak competition to pad his stats. He played for OTE the same system Johnson and Kinney played in. See how much more college ready they really are. Instead of practicing for a couple hours a day they dedicate nearly 8 hours a day on just basketball. The proof is in the pudding. EJ Walker who I’m a big fan of and I’ve seen him play 3-4 times. He could have averaged 40 ppg but shared the ball and even did all the little things to win the game. Walker a Kentucky kid signed up with South Carolina as well. If Noah would have played for South Carolina last year he would have been the 6th man. He would be starting this year as the 3. When fans complain about these players I can tell you this and I bleed blue never take a backseat for anything. Do what’s going to benefit you more than what anyone else cares about. I wouldn’t sit on the end of anyone’s bench if I had the skills these kids have. When its your time its your time but especially with today the transfer portal you can always start smaller and work your way to the top. Kids these days want instant gratification. Back to what I was saying Eli Ellis is going to be one of the best point guards in the sec not this year but he will hit some big shots. Think about it like this would you be the 12th 13th man on a team in a conference that for another team you would be a 6th or 7th man? Me I’m a competitor so I would want to play. That’s what Perry did and I don’t blame him a bit for wanting to play the game he loves to play. I knew it would take Perry and Noah a year or 2 to be ready at Kentucky.
Its a good.sign if JQ is already moving around like that. I think he will be ready to go in November. That’s 9 months removed from surgery. If not November then definitely December he’s very young and your body heals accordingly.
Ready or not, Garrison should be the starting center at the beginning of the season. I think his game is going to impress in 2025/26. Jelavic is going to surprise people too. If Quaintance can play his way into the starting rotation, either at power forward or center, that would be great. What would be even better is that Garrison and Jelavic are playing to good not to start. Quaintance would still get plenty of PT and still be a lottery pick in the draft. That scenario would allow Potter to redshirt, bulk up, and develop by practicing against our frontcourt, but 15 scholarships may keep him active. It will be interesting to see how Moreno’s game translates in college level competition. Hawthorne can still be active too, but will see limited PT behind Dioubate and Williams. Chandler and Noah’s games could take a step back due to the limited PT they will see as Aberdeen and Johnson will most likely be slotted ahead of them on the depth chart. This team is solid 3 levels deep at every position. They will be a better defensive/rebounding team. Will they be able to put up 35 threes a game at a 35%+ clip? They may not need to. Will the seldom used four of Chandler, Noah, Potter, and Hawthorne hit the portal in the Spring of 2026 or will they stay and most likely get recruited over? This team is a definite Final 4 contender, but No. 9 may not come until 2026/27 or 27/28, but Kentucky will be in the thick of Championship contention for years to come.
Stoops taking power from Marrow and giving it to what’s his face was Stupid,I mean how dumb can you be ! Marrow had turned the program around with the kind of recruits we had gotten,even competing with and beating other top schools like Bama,Ohio St.,Georgia,and others out at times !
Funny how Calipari and Stoops ends mirror each other in that they have falling outs with top assistant coaches,and make stupid comments that piss off the fan base.
Good person coming back from type surgery Quaintence has would be Adrian Peterson,running back Vikings. He was a beast, but he swore he’d be back before the next season,not only was he,but he tore up the NFL that next year !