Coach Mark Pope didn't want to risk another setback by playing Jaland Lowe Tuesday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky’s first season with Mark Pope as coach was derailed by a series of injuries that included playing without the team’s top three point guards in some games.
That’s one reason Kentucky fans have already felt jinxed this year with starting point guard Jaland Lowe out with a shoulder injury and backup point guard Denzel Aberdeen hampered by a leg injury.
Aberdeen did return in Tuesday’s win over Nicholls and helped spark the Cats win. But Lowe did not play just like he did not in UK’s two exhibition games after injuring his shoulder in the Blue-White Game.
However, Pope did say on the UK Radio Network postgame show with Tom Leach that Lowe might be able to play Friday against Valparaiso which would be huge considering that Kentucky plays at Louisville next Tuesday.
“I think there’s a chance we might have a J. Lowe sighting Friday. We’ll see,” Pope said on his radio show.
Pope, though, straddled the fence a bit on Lowe.
“I’m not guaranteeing (Lowe will play). It’s gonna depend on the next couple of days of practice,” the Kentucky coach said.
Lowe wanted to play against Nicholls but Pope opted for the cautious approach to try and make sure Lowe does not rush back and hurt himself again.
“If he has any say in it (he will play). You know, he was pretty upset with me that we didn’t throw him in the deal today, so I’m hopeful we’ll have a J. Lowe sighting. We’ll see how it goes the next couple of days,” Pope said.
3 Responses
He needs to play Friday so our offense can find some kind of rhythm. With Lowe at the point Chandler at the 2. Oweh at the 3. Mo-D at the 4 and im going with BG at the 5. The only reason I'm going with BG over Moreno is because he's way better offensively than Moreno. Moreno is the better rebounder but BG is much better on defense and is better at putting the ball in the basket. Plus he has more experience I would go with that starting 5 and have Aberdeen and Johnson both come off the bench first. You can swap out BG and Garrison whenever they are tired. Williams hasn't really showed me anything and I said I would be surprised if he even matches last year's 9 ppg. He played 32 minutes per game. Here he will play about 20 minutes per game. I see him averaging about 6-7 ppg. As the 8th man.
Lowe needs to play Friday, so does Noah… if only limited minutes. Quit babying these kids!
According by KSR Lowe will play and Trent will not he has a boot on. I don't think there's any baby sitting going on.
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