Mark Pope shares latest on Jayden Quaintance ahead of Kentucky-Arkansas
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Jayden Quaintance looks unlikely to return when Kentucky faces Arkansas on Saturday.
Wildcats head coach Mark Pope spoke to the media on Thursday and said Quaintance is still in “shutdown mode.”
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“Well, he’s still dealing with a little bit of swelling in his knee, so we’re trying to make sure we get to a great kick-off point,” Pope said, per Daniel Hager of On3. “I wish I could predict how that’s going to work, but we don’t know. We actually don’t. Right now, he’s in full shutdown in terms of his on-court work. We’re doing everything we can with the performance team.
“One of the things that is, in the immediate moment, challenging, is that he misses some of the strength they’ve worked so hard to develop. The knee protective strength. It’s a bit of a complicated bag, but I know his health long-term is going to be excellent. It’s just in the immediate future, we’re trying to figure that out. He will not play Saturday at Arkansas unless he gets better.”
The discouraging Quaintance update is the latest blow in what has been an up-and-down second year for Pope at Kentucky. The Wildcats dropped to 14-7 on the year after a 80-55 blowout loss at Vanderbilt. UK is 5-3 in conference contests entering a key stretch that starts with Saturday’s showdown at No. 15 Arkansas.
Quaintance has been limited to 4 appearances this season. He last played on Jan. 7 in the home loss to Mizzou.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
