Jaland Lowe (Larry Vaught Photo)
By LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky coach Mark Pope shared a little good news along with some bad news on the injury situation at his media opportunity Thursday.
First, the bad news.
Mo Dioubate is not going to play against Gonzaga Friday night in Nashville. He has missed the last three games since injuring his ankle against Michigan State.
“He’s got a high-ankle sprain. He’s doing good, won’t be available tomorrow,” Pope said Thursday. “There’s a chance, maybe next week, we’ll see. These things sometimes can be weeks and weeks and weeks, so he’s doing everything he can to get back.
“It’s just — these high-ankle sprains are super painful, and it’s, without getting too specific, it’s just a torn ligament between the tibia and fibula. It’s just whatever, you know?”
Torn ligament? Weeks and weeks and weeks? Not the words BBN needs after UK has already lost to three ranked teams after Tuesday’s loss to North Carolina.
Point guard Jaland Lowe has played in only two of UK’s eight games due to his shoulder injury. He re-injured himself Nov. 13 in practice — the third time since June that he had dislocated his right shoulder — but he was scheduled to participate in Thursday’s full practice.
“He’s been a little bit on the practice floor. He’s gonna try and practice a little bit today. He did some live stuff yesterday, so he’s kind of working his way back in and we’ll see how that goes,” Pope said.
“We’re gonna see what happens. I don’t know (about Gonzaga), we’ll see. Don’t know, I’m not sure.”
6 Responses
If Lowe ever does take the floor the opposing team will test that shoulder to see if it is healed or not. Mikail Brown ate his lunch in the Louisville game. I am not sure how much help he will be.
I heard all summer that Pope had built this team so an injury wouldn't kill the season. That Ky had atleast two solid players for each position. That absolutely wasn't true.
By the way…..the "Fraud" just beat the dirty birds by 9.
Yes he did, but look at last year. The Hogs were ready to can him because he was focused on making Boogie Fland a top 5 draft pick. The Hogs were losing ALL of their marquee games and then Fland got hurt. That is when Calipari went back to being the coach that he was at Memphis and they started winning again as was evidenced by the asswhooping he gave us last year in Lexington.
For whatever reason, Calipari has stopped pimping for the NBA and has started coaching to win at Arkansas. If he had dropped the pimp act in Lexington, he would still be there. The Hogs have a good team again this year. My thought is that Cal never recovered from the 39-1 team getting beat by Wisconsin because he refused to pull Andrew Harrison out of the game. Most came down hard on him for that decision, so he said to himself…F_ck Kentucky. I will just be a pimp for the NBA and did so for years. He bailed out for Arkansas when he saw the axe coming down.
Calipari is a good man and a good coach when he chooses to be so. From 2016 on, he chose to be a NBA pimp and therefore earned the name "The Fraud". Being named the men's head basketball coach at Kentucky seems to mess with their head. It messed up Eddie Sutton, Billy Gilespie, Rick Pitino at the end, Calipari, and now Mark Pope. Pope has been a major disappointment this year. He needs to sit down with Will Stein and get a crash course on how to command commitment and discipline from a team. It is not too late for Pope to turn this team around but he will only do so by being their coach and not their buddy.
The Cats won the SEC regular season in 2020. Ky had a real shot at winning the SEC Tournament and getting back to a FF if not for covid. They were heating up at the right time. In 2016 the Cats won the SEC regular season and Tournament. They did the same in 2017. In 2018 they won the SEC Tournament and went to the Sweet 16. In 2019 the Cats went to the Elite 8. Saying Cal did nothing after 2015 is False. The "Snake Oil Salesman" owned Slick Rick and the dirty birds. Sadly he will do the same against Pope and the Cats.
with you on 2020 JIMMY