Jayden Quaintance (Vicky Graff Photo)
Any possibility that injured Jayden Quaintance might be cleared just in time for NCAA Tournament play and help boost Kentucky’s postseason chances apparently are over.
The Arizona State transfer averaged five points and five rebounds in 16.5 minutes a game in just four games for Kentucky coming off a knee injury suffered midway of his freshman season at Arizona State. Still, he was considered one of the top players in the transfer portal because of his offensive prowess and defensive play.
Quaintance gave UK fans a look at what he could do when he had 10 points and eight rebounds in only 17 minutes in the win over St. John’s, the Big East regular season and conference tournament champion. However, he’s not going to be playing Friday in St. Louis when UK takes on Santa Clara.
Quaintance has not played since Jan. 7. Kentucky coach Mark Pope has said he has been progressing and Kentucky did get sophomore Kam Williams, who had been out almost eight weeks with a broken foot, back for the SEC Tournament.
During his Monday radio show, Pope didn’t totally rule the 6-foot-10 Quaintance out for NCAA play this weekend but it sure seems that way. He said not having Quaintance this weekend was the “expectation” he had.
“JQ is making progress, but I don’t think he’s going to be able to cross the line before this weekend — although, you never know for sure. But that would be my expectation,” Pope said.
8 Responses
I don't know why Pope even mention it before hand. I think he needs just let it go and let JQ heal fully so he can do what's best for him whatever the future holds. He's only 18-19 years old and hopefully he will decide to come back for next year.
There's word out that Stolks will make announcement on April 11th during peach jam and will play at kentucky. That will be big for Pope.
If this is true we will automatically be a championship contender if we even get back 6-7 guys which we can get back up to 11 guys. JQ will enter the draft at the end of the year. I really am tired of hearing about him.
Well, JQ turned out to be a real disappointment. I thought he would be the difference maker. Really he is Sharpe junior, but got paid tons more money than Sharpe. I saw a report that said Lendeborg, big guy for Michigan, was offered 7-9 million to play for Ky this past year. College Sports isn't fun anymore. If people are going to have to watch second rate players who get paid millions, one might as well watch the pro's. I thought i would never stop bleeding blue, but I'm down to my last drop.
Hard to say about JQ … he was never healthy
As long as people go to the games this will only get worse. Pretty soon the great players in college will make around 10 million a year. It went from a million was a lot to a million being for Noah type players quickly. How can a coach tell a player what to do and the player has more money than the coach. This was the dilemma in the NBA starting in the mid 90s until now. You can see a big downfall in the NBA starting in the mid 90s. Since then I haven't watched. I'm going to continue to support college basketball for at least another season. I really think we have a chance to be great next year. Pope is out of his element with this team. We have no 3 point shooters. Noah, Chandler, and Williams is all the good shooters we have. Williams still isnt 100% back Noah can't shoot in the games and Chandler is a streaky shooter. That's not a great recipe for success when he plays everyone outside the 3 point line. When you don't have shooters the defense can play off and clog the paint and make things very difficult for the offense. This is what happens then when Oweh or Aberdeen drive in all of a sudden they have 2-3 guys guarding them once they get in the paint..that's why we are a better fast break team even without a point guard which is unheard of but it's true. Watch the games when we slow it down and try to run plays we never score. If we shoot the ball fast within 10 seconds of getting the ball we score more. Watch and pay attention. The reason why is we have no shooters to set up his offense.
Waste
None of this looks good for Pope at all. He seems to be unable to motivate, coach, and sell the program. Feel there is zero chance JQ hits the floor this year in spite of Pope continuing to bait the BBN.
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