Lamont Butler is once again OUT for Kentucky (but Andrew Carr is healthy)

Would you like the good news or bad news first? We’ll start with the bad news — although it’s not terribly surprising considering Mark Pope‘s most recent comments. Lamont Butler, dealing with a shoulder injury, has been declared OUT ahead of Kentucky’s matchup at Ole Miss on Tuesday.

When asked about Butler’s status moving forward and if it would be a long-term situation for the Wildcats, Pope said he was uncertain on a potential return.

“I just don’t know. I’m not sure,” he said. “We are trying to just navigate the space. There’s a lot to it because I’m not going to share because it’s his stuff. We are trying to figure out how to proceed right now. We will see, I would tell you more, but we just really genuinely don’t know yet. We’ll figure out more in the next couple of weeks. I would assume at some point we are going to take another shot at this and see how it goes and we will kind of play it by ear.”

Considering that ominous update came just two days ago, we shouldn’t be surprised to see Butler quickly declared out ahead of the trip to Oxford.

On the flip side, Andrew Carr has been officially removed from the injury report, meaning he’s good to go at Ole Miss and moving forward after getting his back issue under control.

“Feeling good, feeling good. It was certainly a tough stretch for me for a little bit,” Carr said of his back on Monday. “I’ve spent a lot of time with our trainers and been able to recover a little bit here and starting to stabilize a little bit and feel a whole lot better. I’m in a good spot.”

As for the Rebels, guard Matthew Murrell has been listed as QUESTIONABLE going into the matchup. He earned a similar pregame grade against Missouri and Texas, but ultimately played in both games. The 6-4 senior was listed as probable against Auburn before scoring 17 points on 4-6 shooting to go with four rebounds in 31 minutes.

The new SEC policy states that players must be listed as “out” (0% chance to play), “doubtful” (25% chance to play), “questionable” (50% chance to play), or “probable” (75% chance to play) in reports prior to game days. On the final report, players will be designated as “available,” “game-time decision” or “out” in an effort to provide additional clarity.

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