CJ Fredrick says plan is for him to play in the Big Blue Bahamas Tour

CJ Fredrick sat out the entire 2021-22 season for Kentucky Men’s Basketball, but he fully expects to be ready to roll well before the 2022-23 season tips off in November.

During a media opportunity on Friday afternoon, the Iowa transfer went in-depth on his hamstring injury that required surgery not even 48 hours after Kentucky lost to Duke last year in the Champions Classic. It was the sharpshooter’s second surgery in a matter of months — he battled plantar fasciitis and had a minor clean-up surgery done on his leg last July.

Fredrick is on pace to make a full recovery and is currently in the midst of a five-week “ramp-up” period between now and the Big Blue Bahamas Tour in August. The 6-foot-4 soon-to-be redshirt senior went into detail with the media about how the injury initially occurred.

“In practice, I had a little hamstring strain and I rehabbed it fine, like two-and-a-half, three weeks, and I felt fine with everything,” Fredrick said. “And then I guess maybe it was too fat, but some flukey stuff happened in warmups at the (Madison Square) Garden and I really didn’t think anything of it. I knew I felt something off, I knew I heard a pop.

“But when you’re in the Garden getting ready to play Duke, you don’t really think about what just happened with your leg so I just went at my normal routine if coach needed me out there ready to play, and then later on when I got off the plane my leg was so swollen, I knew that something was wrong. Then they told me that I tore my hamstring and that was rough.”

Fredrick would miss the entire season for Kentucky following the hamstring surgery, but those issues are now being put in the past. With the Big Blue Bahamas Tour scheduled from August 8 through the 14, Fredrick says the plan is for him to participate in the four-game preseason event.

“I’ve got about a five-week ramp-up period and in those weeks just I’ll be working up to live,” Fredrick added. “I’m good to go, but they can’t just throw me out there and expect to be able to play. So we have a good plan, a good five-week plan that leads up to the Bahamas practices and that should have me right where I can do maybe six, five Bahamas practices and the plan is to play in the Bahamas.”

While the time off the floor has still allowed Fredrick to acclimate himself to the Kentucky program — he considers himself an “OG” now that he’s in year two with the ‘Cats — nothing compares to actually playing the game. And when he’s been on the hardwood over the years, there hasn’t been a better shooter in all of college basketball than Fredrick.

During his time on the floor with Iowa, the Covington Catholic product drained 46.6 percent of his outside looks on nearly 180 attempts. Fredrick figures to fill the role left behind in the wake of Kellan Grady’s departure, who was arguably the top outside shooter in the Southeastern Conference a year ago.

Having a full healthy Fredrick for the entire year almost feels necessary at this point for a Kentucky program entering a critical season. By the sounds of it, that should be the case.