- The Longhorns entered the contest 15-10 on the season and 4-8 in SEC play. They’re living life squarely on the Big Dance bubble.
- It’s unclear when Lamont Butler or Jaxon Robinson might return for UK. But Saturday showed why their return can’t come soon enough.
AUSTIN, Texas — Their names are Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson. But for Kentucky basketball, the pair might as well be called “SEC Tournament” and “NCAA Tournament.” Because with Butler and Robinson injured, UK’s results in the SEC and NCAA events will look a lot like Saturday night.
A gritty, spirited team that simply has too many injuries to turn around its recent mediocrity in March.
“Mediocre” is how one might describe Texas, which knocked off UK on Saturday, notching an 82-78 win at the Moody Center.
The Longhorns entered the contest 15-10 on the season and 4-8 in SEC play. They’re living life squarely on the Big Dance bubble. But thanks in large part to boasting the best player on the floor in superstar freshman guard Tre Johnson (and his game-high 32 points), the hosts sent the Wildcats (17-8, 6-6) back to the Bluegrass State with another loss.
And with more questions than answers.
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It’s unclear when Butler or Robinson might be back. But Saturday showed why their return can’t come soon enough.
For one: UK led by five, 69-64, with 3:51 remaining. Then, it collapsed. The Longhorns doubled up the Wildcats, 18-9, the rest of the way. And even that is deceiving: The game’s final bucket was a meaningless 3-pointer at the buzzer by Otega Oweh when the outcome already had been decided.
If Robinson’s wrist hadn’t put him on the injured list, it’s likely UK would have had far more breathing room down the stretch. If Butler’s shoulder hadn’t been reinjured in the second half of Tuesday’s win over Tennessee, Kentucky would have had its best defender available — someone to prove more of a match for Johnson than what the rest of the Wildcats offered Saturday.
Then there’s the case of another Kentucky starter, forward Andrew Carr, who has been a shell of himself recently compared to his early-season form. A nagging back issue has ailed the 6-foot-11 fifth-year senior nearly two months. He was in the lineup for the first 18 games of UK’s season, playing 21-plus minutes 17 times; since then, he’s reached that threshold just once.
The difference is staggering.
The numbers:
- Carr in his first 18 games, all starts: 10.9 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, with nine outings of three (or more assists);
- Carr in his last six appearances, all off the bench: 5 points and 2.3 rebounds per game, with only one three-assist effort.
That’s not even mentioning backup point guard Kerr Kriisa, who has been sidelined more than two months with a foot injury.
All these injuries are a matter of record.
Just don’t enter them as evidence in Mark Pope‘s court.
“We’re not leaving any space for that,” Kentucky’s coach said after Saturday’s setback. “I have a good team. Like, the guys on the court are good players, and we’re good enough to win, and these guys have proven that.”
Saturday, the Wildcats just let a victory slip through their grasp.
“We did it for 36 minutes. We just didn’t do it for the last four,” Pope said. “That’s just the truth. That’s just the fact. And we’ll lean into the facts right now.”
The truth also is the injuries have regularly shaken up Kentucky’s starting five.
With Butler out and Carr limited last month against Tennessee, Ansley Almonor and Koby Brea stepped in and spurred the squad to an upset of its bitter border state rival. Butler rejoined the lineup against South Carolina … the day after Robinson injured his wrist in a practice collison.
It’s been a state of constant upheaval, with Pope and his staff mixing and matching lineups as best they can.
“These guys that are filling in spots, they’re really, really good players,” Pope said.
Even so, Pope conceded some “are in positions they haven’t been in” before, such as freshmen Trent Noah and Travis Perry taking on more responsibility in the interim.
“But this group is good enough to win, and we’ll figure that part out,” Pope said. “We’re going to get there. We’re at that point in the season where these late-game situations, they’re going to become increasingly heated. We have incredibly painful moments from this game where we weren’t present — and we will learn from that. We’re going to continue to get better.”
If the Wildcats’ progress synchronizes with Pope’s hopes, the moments when breakdowns occurred Saturday will surface again.
They’ll get a do-over.
“And we’re going to do them right,” Pope said. “These guys are so emotionally invested. They’re putting in so much energy. They’re so committed to each other that they’ll figure this out.
“But it’s about the guys that are on the court right now, and we have the guys to do this.”
Yet to do it correctly — to achieve the aims of Pope, his players and UK’s fervid fan base — will require Kentucky to make hay in March. That won’t come to pass with Butler and Robinson relegated to passionate observers on the bench.
Those are the facts.
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
