Kentucky taking cautious approach with Andrew Carr's back injury

Andrew Carr‘s back injury has placed him on the SEC’s Availability Report ahead of Kentucky’s last two games. The fifth-year forward was a game-time decision for the road win against Mississippi State and was listed as probable prior to the Wildcats’ home win over Texas A&M earlier this week.

The pain has been tolerable enough to still play in those games, but his back beginning to sound like something that will bother him for weeks to come.

“Next week we have a full week (off from games),” Head coach Mark Pope said during his Thursday press conference. “We’re kind of scratching and clawing to stay alive right now. And then we’ll be able to put three days together next week where hopefully we can make some progress (with Carr’s back). But right now he’s kind of on no practice, and just hope we can tape him together for the game. That’s kind of how we’ve been rolling the last two weeks. He’s been fighting and battling and being really effective in the games. He’s dying to play. We’ll piece it together.”

Carr’s back problems came seemingly out of nowhere. The SEC does not require teams to provide reasoning for any player listed on the Availability Report, which is released the day before an intraconference matchup and updated right before tipoff. It wasn’t until the SEC Network broadcast crew mentioned Carr’s back injury during the Mississippi State matchup that the public even knew what was going on. He’s been spotted wearing a back brace whenever he’s not in the game.

So don’t be surprised if Carr’s name is once again on the Availability Report when the initial update is released on Friday for Kentucky’s Top 10 showdown at Rupp Arena against No. 4 Alabama. As Pope mentioned, Carr isn’t practicing right now in hopes of keeping him as fresh as possible for the actual games. That plan has worked so far. To his credit, the Wake Forest transfer is producing despite the pain.

Still in the starting lineup, Carr has posted back-to-back 13-point games while dealing with this back issue. He added six rebounds and one assist while shooting 5-8 from the field against Mississippi State, following that up with four rebounds and one assist on 6-9 shooting against Texas A&M. He’s a combined +11 across those two wins.

Having a week off from games after Alabama will surely give Carr much-needed recovery time. But Kentucky will need another productive performance from him against the Crimson Tide on Saturday.

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