Kentucky will have 3 lefties in the backcourt for 2025-26

When was the last time you saw three left-handed players in one backcourt? That’ll be Kentucky’s situation at guard going into the 2025-26 season.

With the addition of sophomore Pitt transfer Jaland Lowe on Saturday morning, the Wildcats now have three lefties on the roster. Incoming freshmen guards Jasper Johnson and Acaden Lewis are also both left-handed. We don’t know how that trio will mesh just yet, but we do know one thing right now: they’ll make for some athletically pleasing basketball to watch.

You have to go back to the 2013-14 roster to find three lefties (who actually played) on one Kentucky team, according to BigBlueHistory, when James Young, Julius Randle, and Jarrod Polson were sporting the blue and white. But Randle was a frontcourt player while Polson saw limited minutes. All three of Lowe, Johnson, and Lewis expect to fill a rotational role under Mark Pope next season. There have been 40 left-handed players to suit up for Kentucky throughout program history.

The Lexington Lefties ™️ pic.twitter.com/JJ5UbYsTL1

— Matt Sak BBN (@MattSakR2NG) April 5, 2025

Does having three southpaws in the backcourt actually matter? The majority of basketball players are right-handed and are used to defending right-handed players, so in a way, it could create an advantage to have multiple of them on the floor at the same time. It could also theoretically be easier for a left-handed player to defend a right-handed player, as the latter will be attacking the former’s strong hand.

All that being said, college basketball players and coaches are smart. They’ll adapt to facing one or two or three lefties at the same time. If anything, Kentucky’s left-handed guards could create a minor edge going up against right-handed players. But there’s no real data out there to prove the advantage is close to anything significant.

Even still, those three will be fun to watch as they slice up defenses with their left.