Jaland Lowe (Vicky Graff Photo)
There was a lot to like about the way point guard Jaland Lowe played in his first extensive action since re-injuring his shoulder last month, the third time since June.
However, the best news came after Kentucky’s 72-60 win over Indiana Saturday night.
“My shoulder feels amazing. It’s the best it can be, that’s all I can really say. Feels the best it can be right now,” Lowe said after the win. “I’m not going to go out there unless I do feel confident. So, if I’m out there, I feel pretty good.”
Lowe was only 5-for-13 from the field in his 24 minutes of play and finished with 13 points, five defensive rebounds, two assists, and one steal. However, his efficiency rating was a plus-24, the highest among UK players in the 72-60 win over Indiana.
Kentucky had Sunday to give Lowe another chance to get treatment and strength training before preparations start for this Saturday’s game in Atlanta against St. John’s and coach Rick Pitino.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope had a lot of “favorite moments” in the win, but one of his best moments came after Lowe missed “yet another uncontested lay-up” against the Hoosiers.
“We were sitting in the time-out, and I was like, ‘Hey, that just means you are one closer to the make man, be hyped about it. You are just one closer to making one,” Pope said. “What was great was that he was sitting to my left and his four teammates sitting in the chairs turned to him and said exactly the same thing. They all jumped and said, ‘Shoot it man, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.’
“And then of course the first shot he makes after missing all of the shots that I preach and teach and talk about is the step back 15 footer.”
Pope correctly admitted the UK offense was “not a thing of beauty right now” after the Cats were 22 of 58 from the floor and missed 12 of 15 3’s. Then he reversed what he said.
Actually, that’s not true. I actually thought it was beautiful tonight. The relentless force was beautiful. But there’s not a lot of pretty offense out there. We are still trying to find ourselves,” Pope said. “JLowe helps us. Thought it was an incredibly physical game. I thought JLowe was really terrific for the most part. Being able to re-attack and re-attack and re-attack, use the CL screen, and kinda find a way actually to make some things happen.
“Once he gets his rhythm back and makes some of those bunnies, he would have had a really impactful, impactful game.”
Lowe admitted he was rusty after missing games and then playing sparingly the previous two games.
“I am trying to get that off as quickly as possible, but I just wanted to bring a lot of energy. My guys know what to expect from me and just trying to be a leader on the court. Just show up in ways that contribute to winning at all costs,” he said.
Lowe understood how much UK needed a win after losing to Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina and Gonzaga.
“What’s the worst possible way to need a win? We absolutely need this tonight, just to show that we have the fight in us and that we’re capable of doing this. It’s been rocky and hard for us so far in this journey but just showing these guys that we can show up and do it in every aspect tonight is huge for us,” Lowe said.
3 Responses
1The win against Indiana was as ugly as a win can get. Between Aberdeen and Lowe, our two point guards, we had 2 assists and only 10 total for the team. We were out rebounded by a smaller team, but did get enough offensive rebounds to eke out a win as we only shot 38% from the field, 20% from the arc on only 15 attempts, and 66% from the foul line. That is NOT Kentucky caliber basketball Jelavic should be a starter and he didn't even play in that game. What is going on with Pope and this team?
I see this team playing hero ball the rest of the season and finish at 17-15…Pope doesn't have any other answer. Pope keeps saying JQ, JQ, JQ is almost ready. That means another asswhooping from Pitino and a win against lowly Bellarmine bringing us to an 8-5 pre-conference record. Without JQ, I see us going 8-10 in SEC play. That has us going 1-1 in the SEC tourney finishing with a 17-17 record. That barely gets an NIT bid off of our name alone where we go 2-1 finishing the season at 19-18…that is barring any other season crippling injuries. That was not the assignment handed to Pope. With that kind of record and the JMI fiasco, we won't be able to recruit anyone to come play here.
With JQ, who knows? If he does play, teams will come at him hard with every hatchet man they have. It would not surprise me to see him getting hurt again which could end up not only being a season ending injury, but POSSIBLY a career ending injury. Why would he take that chance? Would you let him take that chance if he was your son? How did we get to this place? It's going to be a long season and hopefully not a disastrous one for JQ. When does football season start again?
Lowe will get better and better as he gets his stride back. Hopefully he won't have anymore setback we need him.
Most college teams have a player who's arm pops out of place maybe once every 10-20 years. Here we have it in back to back seasons with our starting point guard?. There has to be a reason for this?? Maybe some lifting exercise? Idk it's just extremely weird to me that this happens in back to back years both with Pope in charge. Now if it was a common injury in basketball like a sprang ankle I would understand. But two players with opposite body builds. Butler was built like a pit bull and Lowe is much more skinny than Butler but both guards have the exact same injury? To the same shoulder there non shooting arm. This almost seems to much the same. Both players hurt there shoulder before the season really got rolling. I don't know it just seems like to many coincidences. One thing great about JQ playing now is that there will be a odd man out. We have Jelavic, Garrison, Moreno, Mo-D and JQ as post players. Right now Moreno is playing the most minutes at the 5 and Mo-D is playing the most minutes at the 4. Jelavic is the backup 4 and Garrison is the backup 5. So more than likely when JQ first comes back he will split backup minutes with Garrison. Probably after 3-4 games JQ should take over the starting spot from Moreno and Moreno will play backup minutes. If Garrison doesn't start playing very hard very fast he could be the odd man out once we get down the nitty gritty. Garrisons weakness which is rebounding and defending are 2 things that Moreno excels at. The good news for Garrison is that JQ will only be here for half of a season, so if Garrison comes back next year he should man the backup 5. Moreno by next year will be leaps and bounds better than Garrison. Next year if everyone comes back our starting 5 should be Johnson/Chandler/Mo-D/Jelavic/Moreno with Noah and Williams being the sixth and seventh men.