Lamont Butler is taking a beating in games, but he'll never stop fighting: 'This guy is a winner.'

It felt like Lamont Butler spent half of Tuesday’s game against Texas A&M on the hardwood after getting hit, shoved, or even kicked. Kentucky’s sturdy, veteran point guard is never shy when it comes to physicality. At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, Butler embraces “hand-to-hand” combat.

Butler’s size and overall strength as a guard allow him to bully his way to the rim for shots against bigger and taller opponents. He’s actually shooting a career-high 60.5 percent from two-point range this season on a career-best 5.7 two-point attempts per game. He’s getting to the free-throw line (4.5 attempts per game) at a rate that is more than double his career average (1.9).

But a result of that is being more susceptible to getting beat up on a game-by-game basis. He’s already missed two games this season due to a turned ankle that continues to linger.

Kentucky’s 81-69 rock fight victory over a Texas A&M team known for mucking up games was especially rough on Butler’s body. Throughout the game, he went down with what appeared to be a shoulder injury, was accidentally kicked in the face while on the ground, grabbed his knee after a hard fall, and I could go on and on and on…

But Butler popped back up every time, even if he had to spend a few minutes in the locker room to start the second half. He still finished with six points (all coming at the free-throw line), seven assists, three steals, and two rebounds in 30 minutes. Not once did he complain either. Butler just kept bouncing back and making winning plays.

Lamont Butler tomorrow pic.twitter.com/rL2cFJE8iG

— Rare Rookies #BBN (@rarerookies) January 15, 2025

That’s what winners do, and there aren’t many better at playing winning basketball than Butler.

“He’s a winner. He’s a winner,” Head coach Mark Pope said during his Thursday press conference. “I actually said that to the staff yesterday as we were kind of finishing up the autopsy (on the Texas A&M win). And I’m like man this guy is a winner. And we’ve said it a hundred thousand times, but it’s starting to hit even more different, isn’t it? We’ve been saying it, but now we all get to feel it. We all get to experience it, we get to witness it, and we get to see it in real-time at a bigger level than maybe we’ve seen from him before.”

The Southeastern Conference is a deeply talented and physical league. Butler is learning that the hard way. He knows it’s coming though, and he’ll continue to make the hard-nosed winning plays Kentucky needs to be successful. In a way, due to Kentucky’s situation at backup point guard, he has to.

“He’s fun to coach,” Pope added. “He’s gonna keep battling and fighting but it’s probably not the end of him getting beat up a little bit.”

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