Lamont Butler injury update: Mark Pope addresses possibility of sitting Kentucky star for SEC Tournament

Kentucky’s Lamont Butler has been dealing with a shoulder injury since mid-January. He has now re-aggravated that again in the first game of the postseason for the Wildcats.

Following the 85-84 win for UK over Oklahoma in the second round of the SEC Tournament, Mark Pope updated Butler’s status after he didn’t return to the game after leaving with around nine and a half minutes left in the first half because of that injury again. Pope said the team did some initial testing on it at the half last night but that they’d expect to know more to start today about whether he’ll be healthy enough to play moving forward.

“Yeah, so, um, you know, uh, we did some imaging at halftime and, um, some, you know, some manual testing,” Pope said. “We’ll know more probably by tomorrow. We’ll know a little more. … We won’t – I mean, I’m not going to put him in harm’s way, for sure.”

Butler has been dealing with this shoulder since January 14th. It bothered him for a game or two before it cost him three games. He then returned on February 8th before harming it a game and a half later with it again costing him three games. He returned again on February 26th and had played the last four games of the regular season with him improving in each outing. However, that’s now back up in the air for Butler.

This is a big hit to Kentucky for a lot of reasons coming into tournament play. For one, the Wildcats had just gotten back to as whole as they were going to be injury-wise. Now, they’ll again have to make do with whoever is available to play, specifically in the backcourt.

“Yeah, I, you know – I mean, you go through so many emotions. I, like – it’s hard to explain,” Pope said. “I was really proud of our guys and our team because your, your heart is just breaking for, for this, for Lamont. I mean, we already got Jax sitting over there, now Lamont misses the opportunity to be a part of this. And then, it is devastating. Like, it’s devastating, guys, for him. It just is like, ugh. It is like a gut punch. And so you’re kind of dealing with that emotion but trying to put it away so you can just stay focused on the game and our guys did an unbelievable job doing that. And so, with – we’ll put it together, piece by piece.”

For two, the Wildcats want to contend this week in the SEC Tournament and next week in the NCAA Tournament. Pope knows how much both events mean to Big Blue Nation but knows his team will have go through it with a version of Butler that is, at this point, just not going to be back to 100%.

“It’s hard because this matters. Like, you know, it’s, um, I don’t – you know, it’s hard to, it’s hard to explain,” Pope said. “When you walk into this arena and you finish a game like that and, the whole game, you see all these people? You know, these Kentucky fans – like, it’s an arena full of Kentucky fans and, and most of these Kentucky fans probably have never been able to go watch a game at Rupp because they can’t get in, right. And so they, they save and plan for a year to come here and do this. I know that sounds unique and it is really unique. And so you’re – there’s just this massive pull of our guys – like, you know, this is our family. We want to take care of ’em. We want to perform for ’em. We want this to be great and special for them.

“And, also, you know, you’re also thinking about the NCAA Tournament. So this is, this is real for us. This matters for us. And the NCAA Tournament obviously matters for us. And so we’ll just figure it out the best we can.”

Kentucky has at least one more game in Nashville with a quarterfinal against Alabama before learning where it will start a possible tournament run in the bracket on Selection Sunday. Between now and then will come a better idea of which of those, if any, games that Butler can suit up for – with Pope hoping it’ll be for as many as he can with how these past two months have been for him.

“We’ll make the best, we’ll make the best decisions for Lamont that we can, for sure,” Pope said. “I’m praying like crazy and I will be that he is, he can find his way back onto the floor at some point this year. It just, just doesn’t seem fair. Like, it just – this is not a fair game. I’m not, I’m not saying that. But I just – man, I would like for him so badly to be able to step on a court again. So we’ll see how it goes. We’ll see.”