Kentucky's CJ Fredrick close to 100% following tough run of injuries

It’s been a difficult stretch for Kentucky guard CJ Fredrick. During his time on the floor, the 6-foot-4 guard has been an absolute sniper, leading the nation in career 3-point percentage at 46.6% with a minimum of 150 attempts. He knocked down 47.4% of his attempts in 2020-21 across 27 total games, essentially a coin-flip 3-point shooter.

A tough string of injury luck, though, has limited his availability over the course of his career. Fredrick has played just 52 games in four years of college, redshirting at Iowa in 2018-19 and then missing the entire 2021-22 season at Kentucky after undergoing surgery to repair a left hamstring injury. He also battled plantar fasciitis and had a minor clean-up surgery done on his leg last July, which took him out the entire summer and preseason before the hamstring issue.

Now returning to campus this week for his fifth year of college, Fredrick is ready to get back on the floor for the Wildcats.

“I’m really happy where my health is,” Fredrick said at his Players First Satellite Camp in Louisville on Wednesday. “Obviously I’ve been a little banged up recently, but I worked extremely hard all last season just to get my body in really good shape. I was a little bit overweight, and my goal was just to get as thin and lean as possible. I think I’ve done a good job of that.”

He slimmed down, and now, it’s about bulking up and strengthening his body. His hamstring is close to full strength, and the rest of his body is responding well to his workouts, as well.

“This summer, I’ll kind of bulk up and add some more muscle,” he added. “My hamstring feels really good, my body feels really good. I’ll be working out with the team this summer, doing everything with the team this summer in preparation of playing this season. I’m feeling good, I’m excited.”

What comes next for the sharpshooting guard? Fredrick is already good to go in workouts, ramping things up in the weight room and in various drills. He’ll then go through a run of tests in the next week or so to get cleared for full-contact five-on-five scrimmages.

Should things go well — and he anticipates they will — Fredrick will be back on the court with no restrictions.

“The next steps for me, you know — I’ve been medically cleared to do anything in the weight room,” he told KSR. “I’m running, I’m jogging, I’m doing agility stuff, individual workouts. With me just getting back on campus, I’ve got some testing I have to do within the next week or so, and that’ll be the decider if I can get back out there and do five-on-five.

“The way I feel, I think those numbers are gonna be pretty good. I think I’ll be okay. I would say within the next couple of weeks, I’ll be good to go. We don’t start till next week anyway, so I’ll be right there with the other guys.”

What does he think about those other guys? Fredrick is excited about his teammates, singling out their winning attitudes and mindsets.

“I’m really excited. Obviously, I’ll be able to play this season, so I’m really excited for that,” Fredrick said. “I think we have a great balance, some older guys. Obviously, when you have Oscar (Tshiebwe) and Sahvir (Wheeler) coming back, that’s going to help the team out in a lot of ways. And Jacob (Toppin). Then you have a guy like Daimion (Collins) who showed glimpses, he can make a huge jump with his size and his length.

“Then you have a lot of young guys, Cason (Wallace), Chris (Livingston), Adou (Thiero), guys that are hungry. I think that’s the one thing about this team that you’ll see this year. It’s a lot of guys that kind of have that dog attitude. I think we’ve got a lot of dogs this year. They’re hungry and they want to win. That’s what I’m like, so I’m excited to get after it with them.”