CJ Fredrick expected to miss "a few weeks" with dislocated finger

John Calipari will likely be without one of his best shooters to kick off the new year.

Sources tell KSR’s Jack Pilgrim that Kentucky men’s basketball redshirt senior CJ Fredrick is expected to miss “a few weeks” due to a dislocated finger in his right hand. The former Iowa transfer initially suffered the injury during the first half of Kentucky’s 89-75 loss to Missouri on the road earlier in the week. Pilgrim reports that Fredrick avoided any ligament damage, which should reduce his time away from the court.

Through 12 games played this season (including five starts), Fredrick averaged 7.3 points and 1.5 assists in 19.8 minutes per outing. The 6-foot-3 sharpshooter is connecting on 38.8 percent of his 3-point attempts this season and boasts one of the highest-ranked offensive ratings (132.2) of any Divison I player in the country, per KenPom.

CJ Fredrick is expected to be out “a few weeks” with a finger dislocation, source tells KSR

No ligament damage, which would have kept him out as long as two months.

Overall solid injury report for a player Kentucky needs to get rolling during SEC play

— Jack Pilgrim (@JackPilgrimKSR) December 30, 2022

During Kentucky’s loss to Mizzou on Wednesday, Fredrick appeared to jam one of the fingers on his right hand and immediately went to the locker room in clear pain. He first checked in at the 11:17 mark of the opening half, but he only played 3:57 of action before suffering the injury.

Fredrick did return to the bench during the first half and was spotted with tape around two fingers on his right hand. While he was originally cleared to return, UK would eventually rule him out for the remainder of the game at halftime. Fredrick finished with zero points in those four first-half minutes, missing his only shot attempt.

Head coach John Calipari was told after the game that it was likely a dislocation for Fredrick, which appears to be the case a couple of days later. Kentucky is set to take on in-state rival Louisville (2-11) on Saturday at noon EST on ESPN.