Jayden Quaintance will increase his weight room workouts the next few weeks. (Larry Vaught Photo)
Sophomore Jayden Quaintance has insisted he will be ready to play when Kentucky opens the regular season despite suffering a knee injury last season at Arizona State.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope told CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander on “Eye on College Basketball” Thursday that Quaintance was entering a really important, three-week space of his rehab. His workload will increase in the weight room as the fall semester gets ready to start.
Pope would not put an exact timetable on when Quaintance will be ready to play and didn’t even guarantee he would not miss games.
“It’s really important that he gets a full recovery, so it’s going to be a little while,” Pope told Norlander. “I have every expectation that he’ll play this season. I don’t think he’s going to play all the games this season, but we’ll see.
“He’s made great progress and he’s kind of crossing off the benchmarks as he goes. He’s in a really important, three-week space for him right now where it’s the first time we get to his strength training head-on. He’s still not doing anything live-ish or even close to it, but we’re really going strength heavy, heavy, heavy the next three weeks. So we’ll see how these three weeks go.”
Norlander wanted to know if there was a chance Quaintance would be ready to play by the end of November. All Pope would say was “maybe-ish.”
Quaintance tore his ACL on Feb. 23 — six months ago. He didn’t have surgery until March 19 — five months ago. While recovery from ACL surgery is a lot quicker than it was five years ago, it still takes time.
Pope has made it clear since Quaintance’s transfer that he would not risk playing him too soon because he wants him 100 percent for late-season play. Quaintance averaged 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.6 blocked shots, 1.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game last season. He was one of the nation’s best freshman defensive players and is being counted on to bolster UK’s defense. He also shot 52 percent from the field. He’s already being projected as a lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
“When he plays the game of basketball, he just runs over everybody. This guy is a physical specimen like you haven’t seen before,” Pope said.
That’s why a healthy Quaintance is a priority for postseason success and why Pope won’t risk playing him too soon this season.
One Response
When Quaintance is able to play in live practice for 2 weeks, that will be the time to get him onto the floor in games. That 2 weeks will speed up the conditioning process, give him a chance to learn the offense and defense on the floor, and give everybody confidence, including himself, that he is ready to go. Hopefully, that will be in time for the Indiana game. I would bring him off the bench to play at the 4 and 5 spots in 4 to 5 minute stretches. Him giving us 15 to 20 minutes a game by SEC play would be huge. Jelavic would start at the 4 and Garrison at the 5 but that still means Potter and Dioubate would get some minutes at the 4 spot and Moreno getting PT at the 5. Jelavic could get some minutes at the 5 if foul trouble arises with Garrison.
Even if he is ready for live game action in October, I would still use him in the same manner until he found his groove again. The mental adjustment will be just as crucial as the physical. He has to believe that he can be a dominant player again without worrying about the knee giving out. That would be his role until a situation arises that requires him to do more. That would give him a fairer chance to take on a bigger role. We can be a good team without Quaintance and a great team with him. Nobody will want to play Kentucky once Quaintance is back to full speed.