Kentucky has battled injuries all season long, and on Monday, the Cats found out that starting point guard Jaland Lowe would miss the remainder of the season with a shoulder injury.
Lowe played in just nine games this season. Sophomore big man Jayden Quaintance has played in just four. Forward Mo Dioubate has missed time due to injury as well.
All of this makes it difficult for UK head coach Mark Pope to establish a rotation because the pieces available are continually changing.
“It’s not a unique challenge in the sense of every team is facing, but it is a challenge trying to establish an identity, mostly because those two pieces are very unique to our team,” Pope said of Lowe and Quaintance. “So, it’s not like we’re it’s not like we just move on to the next guy. In the same way we have to retool a lot of things as we move on to the next guy.”
While Lowe has been ruled out for the season, Quaintance is in more of a day-to-day situation, according to Pope.
“We did some more testing,” Pope said. “That’s an ongoing thing, too, that we’re going to probably figure more about in the next couple days.”
With or without Quaintance, Kentucky visits LSU on Wednesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge. The Tigers started the season on fire, winning their first eight games and going 12-1 in non-conference play. However, LSU has dropped its first three Southeastern Conference games, falling to Texas A&M, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.
Kentucky is now 10-6 on the season and 1-2 in SEC play. Pope and the Cats hope that a convincing win over Mississippi State on Saturday can be a springboard for the rest of the season, no matter which pieces are available to play.