Kentucky basketball has had a few extra days off to rest before the NCAA Tournament after getting smashed by Alabama in the SEC tournament quarterfinals on Friday night by a score of 99-70. During that game, Mark Pope and company severely missed point guard Lamont Butler, who was out with a shoulder injury.
Butler re-aggravated his shoulder injury, which has popped up over and over this season, on Thursday against Oklahoma in the second round. Despite the troubling nature of the lingering injury, Pope expects Butler to be ready to go for the NCAA Tournament according to college basketball insider Jon Rothstein.
“Kentucky’s Lamont Butler (shoulder) will be available for the Wildcats’ first NCAA Tournament game this week, per Mark Pope,” Rothstein reported on X, formerly Twitter.
Butler is Kentucky’s third-leading scorer at 11.5 points per game and is the team’s leading assist man with 4.3 dimes a night, but his impact beyond the stat sheet is where the Wildcats miss him the most. After he left that game against the Sooners, Kentucky almost collapsed in the final minute against Oklahoma’ s press before an Otega Oweh game-winner put the Wildcats over the top.
Butler’s absence was a major reason why Kentucky struggled against the pressure, but his injury compounds some of its biggest problems. Pope and company are already playing without its other two top options at point guard after Kerr Kriisa broke his foot and Jaxson Robinson had season-ending wrist surgery. Without Butler, the Wildcats don’t have a reliable option at point guard to lean on.
Butler initially injured his shoulder in January before aggravating the injury in a Feb. 11 win over Tennessee. He returned late in the month, playing limited minutes for Kentucky basketball at first before working his way back to a full workload for the conference tournament. He played just eight minutes against Oklahoma before exiting again.
Kentucky’s seed in the NCAA Tournament is still up for grabs. The Wildcats could realistically end up as either a No. 3 or 4 seed, so they will likely need Butler to play in the first round against feisty mid-major squad.
The post Kentucky HC Mark Pope reveals Lamont Butler’s NCAA Tournament injury status appeared first on ClutchPoints.
