Kentucky’s point guard is back in action finally after battling a preseason shoulder injury suffered in the annual Blue-White scrimmage, being forced to miss six of the first 11 games of the regular season, including the two preseason exhibitions.
At this current moment, this is the longest he’s been back all season, now stretching it through three straight games. He’s starting to find his groove, playing 24 minutes last game and scoring a season-high 13 points. In 5 games as a Wildcat, he is averaging 5.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game.
He was asked on Saturday night after the conclusion of Kentucky’s 72-60 win over Indiana on how he feels currently, plus how long he expects to be in the shoulder brace through actual game play, and he detailed it all.
He says the plan from the medical staff currently is to wear the brace the rest of the season.
“I think that’s the plan. It’s just a lot of possibilities with a shoulder injury like this. You never know. I don’t take this game for granted anymore…”
You could really tell he was happy to be back on the floor — with real minutes — as a Kentucky Wildcat, a thing that’s been a slow ramp-up all year. He clocked 30 total minutes against Indiana, his second highest total of the year.
He also was interviewed by The Field of 68 Network after the game and they asked him a series of questions with one being tied to on how he’s mentally handled all of this, going through an injury rehab while also dealing with the 5-4 start (now 7-4) to the season.
He says he is “going through one of the hardest times” of his life, which is definitely something that I wouldn’t have been able to tell from the outside looking in. Many people think that with the NIL incentive and all the attention you get playing at a high profile school like UK that life would be great the entire time, but you never know what’s actually going through these players’ heads. They’re still just 18-23 year olds learning how to manage life. This quote really puts things into perspective and at the end of the day these college athletes just want to win basketball games and be great. With Jaland Lowe back against the Hoosier’s, Kentucky looked much, much better as a whole.
With Lowe back at point guard, I feel like it also helps the rest of the roster produce at a higher level because the majority of them are used to being off the ball and not having to run an offense. When other guys had to step up in his absence, it put them in roles that they weren’t comfortable with and also quite frankly just weren’t good at doing, so I think this team’s ceiling is a lot higher with Lowe on the floor. Everyone has a job and Jaland’s is to run the system and keep the offense flowing, a job that he seems to do better than anyone else on the team.
Between last Saturday’s game and their next one, they will get a full seven days to heal up and continue practicing for their next opponent — St. John’s. They’ll face the No. 22 Red Storm in Atlanta in the CBS Sports Classic inside State Farm Arena at 12:30 PM ET.
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