A shoulder injury limited Jaland Lowe to only nine games last season. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Jaland Lowe and his father, Marland, both made it clear late in the season that the point guard hoped to be back at Kentucky for the 2026-27 season after playing in only nine games this season due to injury.
He dislocated his shoulder in the preseason and never fully recovered before having to totally shut down and have surgery in January that ended his season. He averaged 8.0 points, 2.4 assists and 2.1 rebounds per game and made only two starts because of his injury.
Marland Lowe confirmed Saturday that his son, who played at Pittsburgh for two years and averaged 16.8 points and 5.5 assist per game as a sophomore, would be putting his name into the transfer portal after Kentucky did not try to retain him for next season.
“The University of Kentucky and BBN welcomed Jaland. He showed his desire and willingness to play for Kentucky basketball and its fans even through three shoulder separations and a shift,” Marland Lowe said.
“As a parent, of course, one would have wanted their child to shut it down, but we expect mental and physical toughness from our sons. He showed what is instilled within him. The effort was clear. We are proud of him.
“We are thankful to Kentucky basketball for the opportunity. Kentucky fans are incredible.”
Kentucky coach Mark Pope recently admitted that Lowe was the only true “creator” he had on the roster who could set up other players but also get his own shot. His quickness was something UK lacked after he was injured in a summer fall and then again in the Blue-White Game in October.
Lowe should be eligible for a medical redshirt season and that would leave him with two years of collegiate eligibility, one reason schools are already making it known they are interested in Lowe.
Kentucky finished the season 22-14 and teammates praised Lowe for the contributions he made after he was injured by sharing his insights/perspective in games and practices.
9 Responses
Good luck .
Good!
These kids are learning a very valuable lesson too early in life. When you are paid to perform and you can't get it done for any reason, you're taking up space and costing money with no return. Next man up.
The recent signing of Mo William's kid gives us a solid backup at point, we still need a starter there…Tyler Tanner of Vanderbilt.
Sign the Stokes kid to play the 3 spot…he can be the designated shooter, but everything goes through the post on the lower blocks first. Hawthorne can be the backup for the 2 and 3 spots.
Keep Chandler from leaving. He will have a monster year next year.
Keep Moreno and Jelavic from leaving and run the offense through them on the lower blocks. Between the two, we can expect 35, 15, and 8 with fewer than 3 turnovers. The bigger Williams kid can backup the 4 and Potter can back up the 5.
The starters will play 30+ minutes. The backups only play when the starter needs a breather or gets in foul trouble. If Noah stays, which I seriously doubt, he would be the backup small forward.
Dioubate, Lowe, and Garrison hit the portal.
That's the best scenario at this point I agree. I just think next year Jelly and Moreno will be ready. They really played a year to early which will be great for both of there careers. JQ was supposed to start the 5 and Mo was supposed to start the 4 but that's not how it all worked out. There is no way in heck that JQ could have played the 4 he can't shoot. There is no way Mo can play the 3 because he can't shoot. That's what they wanted to play but there game doesn't line up with there preference. Jelly will be night and day better next year because he needed this year to learn the speed of American basketball. Now that he knows he knows what to work on. Moreno needs to work on his hands all summer. His hands are terrible and need a lot of work. What is scary about this is hands you either have them or you don't. You can work on them and get them better but it's hard to go from no hands to great hands but he can get better. He just has to learn to catch the ball first before anything. I do believe BG will want to come back and you almost have to just tell him no. Unless he doesn't plan on playing much his senior year or he develops into a much better player over the summer. What kills me with BG is he has the body and the athletic ability you see it when he would take over the game on like 2 games this year. If he would just go strong to the basket and not let anyone stop him he would dominate the game. You also seen his reaction speed on all the goaltending charges against him this year. That shows that he's a half second to late on thinking. It's not even a half second it's like 2 tenths of a second delay destroys his game. It's like he has to process it first instead of it just being natural and going up with it. I seen him also airball a wide open layup. I've seen a couple of very short guards do this but I've never seen anyone who's almost 7 foot airball a layup and its because he caught a rocket pass and only had a split second to go up with it and his mind just couldn't catch up. But Mo and BG I would tell both of them your going to have to work to play. I would rather have Mo back then BG. Sorry not sorry. Lol
Fingers crossed that we get Tanner from Vanderbilt. If we can get Tanner we have our starting point next year. Then I would get one more solid point guard in the portal. So we have 3 PGs going into next year. I would also go after Josh Hubbard from Mississippi State. If we could get these two guys and bring back 6-7 guys off this roster then go after another 2 guard and elite center or 4 and we are set for next year.. we know that if Chandler Jelly and Moreno come back they will be penciled into start. If Williams comes back I can see him starting the 3 or if Stokes signs with us I can also see him starting the 3. Hopefully it will be between Stokes and Williams who start the 3. I would love to see Tanner/Chandler/Stokes/Jelly/Moreno. If Pope could get all 3 Tanner, Hubbard, and Stokes we would be the frontrunner for the national championship next year. Can you imagine Tanner/Hubbard/Williams/Jelly/Moreno. I think both redshirts will be good role players next year. Hawthorne needs to gain at least 15-20 pounds of muscle. JJ if he stays needs to gain about the same. Look at the point guard who just signed with us Mason Williams he has the body you need to have to play in the SEC. JJs body just isn't going to cut it. You would think his family being a family full of athletes would have had him better prepared, but it's hard to make someone get in the weight room when they want to drive there cyber truck to the mall and spend a couple thousand of his 1.5 milly. I just don't understand paying kids that much who aren't really going to make a difference on your team. I don't understand not playing Hawthorne but playing JJ. I guess because we needed a point guard but I've heard that Hawthorne is a point forward. He can dribble the ball like a guard. We could have used his help this year. But now he has 4 years to become a professional basketball player and I think he starts it off by having a great freshman year next year. He will have a leg up on the rest of the freshman this year. He was supposed to come out this year but he reclassified so we will see how great he really is this year. The 4 players I can see improving the most off of last year's team is Chandler, Jelly, Moreno and Williams. All 4 are possible starters on next year's team depending on who we get to come in. We need to make the biggest splash at point guard because we have no backup options at this point.
Has Tanner put his name in transfer portal? I haven't heard anything.
I haven't heard, or seen, anything about Tanner and the
transfer portal either Cats79.
According to Keegan Brown's philosophy, Ky will be looking for players that fit Ky's style not how talented they are. What style? So he wants players that could be mediocre if they fit Pope's style? They won't take the top players and change style to fit players? Sounds like another losing proposition to me. Of course Pope can't get any of most talented players anyway.