Jaland Lowe did not get to have a lot of happy moments at UK this season because of his shoulder injury. (Vicky Graff Photo)
After saying at his Monday afternoon press conference that he was holding out hope that point guard Jaland Lowe would be back this season, Kentucky coach Mark Pope announced on his radio show Monday night that Lowe would have shoulder surgery and not return.
The Pittsburgh transfer was counted on to be UK’s floor leader this season but was never healthy. He originally dislocated his shoulder in June and then did it again in October. He’s tried to come back twice and each time has had the shoulder pop out of place.
The final time was early in Saturday’s win over Mississippi State.
“We just finished a long meeting with Jaland Lowe, a really emotional meeting, actually. We have pushed the envelope on him in every way,” Pope said on his radio show. “He’s dislocated his shoulder three times now, and every time it’s been with less and less contact. He’s tweaked it in games and tweaked it once in practice to add on top of that.
“We searched, tried every possible reasonable scenario to have him continue on, but just made the wise and right decision today that he’ll go have surgery, and so he’ll be out for the season. It’ll be multiple months — six months, give or take — rehab for him to get back to 100 percent health.”
Pope said it was a “sad day for us” but knows it is the right thing to do for Lowe.
“There’s really no other alternative. It’s what has to happen,” Pope said.
Lowe averaged 8.0 points, 2.4 assists and 2.1 rebounds in the nine games he played. He shot 36 percent from the field and 21 percent from 3. He scored in double figures against Indiana, St. John’s and Alabama.
The decision makes sense for Lowe’s future since he obviously was playing in pain. Now he can have the surgery he was eventually going to have to undergo, rehab for next season and apply for a medical redshirt year that he should easily qualify for.
“Once you set foot on the court for one second during one official game, your redshirt is burned — but there is a medical redshirt avenue,” Pope said. “So that’ll be something.
“Every medical redshirt candidate has to pursue a waiver at the end of the season, and he certainly would qualify in every conceivable way. So we expect that’s a possibility for him.”
4 Responses
It's best decision in my opinion. The question is will he be willing come back and play for the cats or transfer.
Lowe should transfer. He needs a team that depends on him to get his shot 80% of the time and that is not a good fit here. I wish him the best.
Disagree, he’s a good kid and a very talented player. Not like we have point guards lined up to come at present.
We have no one lined up because Pope is not a good recruiter. He’s way in over his head at UK.
Comments are closed.