Sounds like Carr could play vs. Arkansas, but Butler is looking doubtful.
Ahead of Saturday’s showdown between the Kentucky Wildcats and Arkansas Razorbacks, head coach Mark Pope met with the media Thursday to preview the return of John Calipari.
The biggest non-Cal storyline for Kentucky is the health of Andrew Carr and Lamont Butler, who could miss Saturday’s game due to injury.
Unfortunately, Butler is still not cleared to practice, according to Pope, so we shouldn’t expect the starting point guard to play.
“Still not cleared to practice today,” said Pope of Butler.
What about Carr? The starting forward didn’t play in the loss to Vanderbilt and logged just two minutes in Tuesday’s road win over Tennessee.
Apparently, Carr was fine to play more minutes in Knoxville, but Pope wanted to play it safe.
“I’m just a chicken. Andrew is a warrior. He won’t talk about pain. He also needed a little bit of time just to heal,” said Pope. “Hadn’t had any practice time, but he was cleared. Can we buy him a few more days? If we play him now, is there a setback? You just manage all those things.”
All told, my guess is Carr will be listed as questionable on Friday’s SEC injury report and ultimately plays, while Butler will either be listed as out or doubtful before being ruled out on gameday.
That means guys like Travis Perry and Collin Chandler will need to step up again at point guard, while Amari Williams will also be running the offense more like we saw in Knoxville. Jaxson Robinson also figures to get in some run at the point.
Will that be enough to take down an Arkansas team that’s desperate for a win like this to salvage their NCAA Tournament hopes? We’ll find out Saturday at 9 PM.