Mark Pope provides positive, not-so-positive injury updates for Kam Williams, Jayden Quaintance
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Mark Pope is trying to help his Kentucky team shake off a discouraging home loss to Georgia on Tuesday night, which dropped the Wildcats to 17-9 overall and placed them in that 5-team SEC standings logjam at 8-5.
But as much as the embattled Kentucky head coach cares about victories right now as the Wildcats try to push their way into the NCAA Tournament, he knows that maximum health will be key in helping them get there. Right now, Pope’s team isn’t at maximum health, and he shared injury updates on 2 players who could certainly help the Cats’ cause come March.
One is sophomore wing Kam Williams and the other is sophomore forward Jayden Quaintance. We’ll start with Williams, who hasn’t played since Kentucky’s victory over Texas on Jan. 21. Williams broke his foot in that game and underwent surgery later that week, but nobody was ruling him out for the rest of the season at that time.
And now? Well, Pope is still hopeful he can get Williams back at some point.
“We’re optimistic, because we’re always optimistic. The timeline is tight,” Pope told reporters this week. “I don’t know how much publicly he’s been talked about with the specifics of his injury — I’ve been really vague, right? But there’s a real chance that, at some point, if we extend the season out long enough, that he can come back and help us. We’re excited for that to happen.”
And what about Quaintance? His injury situation is a lot murkier, according to Pope, who simply doesn’t know if the season timeline is going to work in Quaintance’s favor. He hasn’t played since Kentucky’s loss to Mizzou on Jan. 7 because of swelling in the same knee he tore his ACL in last season.
“He continues to make progress. He is not ready right now. He’s not ready, and we’re not going to roll him out there (until) he’s 100 percent — and he’s a ways from that,” Pope said. “We haven’t incorporated him back into practice, so that’s complicated. I don’t know how optimistic I am about that.”
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
