Mark Pope hopeful Andrew Carr's back injury is a thing of the past

Andrew Carr is hoping to put his back problems behind him. Kentucky’s fifth-year power forward has missed just one full game (only the second of his college career, by the way) due to his nagging injury, which he revealed earlier this week began in the new year. Back spasms popped up seemingly out of nowhere and lingered for several weeks.

But those issues, for now, aren’t nearly as prevalent. After missing Kentucky’s loss to Vanderbilt on Jan. 25 and playing 89 seconds against Tennessee a few days later, Carr is slowly beginning to look like the player we saw power Kentucky to a huge early-season win over Duke. The 6-foot-11 forward saw 15 minutes against Arkansas on Feb. 1 and then 23 minutes against Ole Miss on Feb. 4.

Unfortunately for the ‘Cats, Kentucky dropped both games to the Razorbacks and Rebels. But at this stage in the season, head coach Mark Pope is doing what he can to get his team healthy again. Starting point guard Lamont Butler appears to be trending in the right direction while backup floor general Kerr Kriisa continues to be on the mend.

Pope is still taking a cautious approach with Carr, but the worst part of his injury is in the rearview.

“The best news is that (Carr) came out feeling just as good as he did the day before,” Pope said Thursday, referring to the Ole Miss game on Tuesday. “That’s the most important thing. I think he was really frustrated with his work on the defensive end. I think he made some really positive plays on the offensive end, some quick reads, some plays for teammates, and some really physical attacking things at the rim. He’s coming. He’s gonna get back to having a massive, massive impact on our team.”

Kentucky simply needs more bodies to fill up the depth. The freshmen have all shown spurts of production but lack the experience to stay consistent. Carr was more consistent than not before the calendar switched over to 2025. He’s not returned to that level just yet, but he showed signs of progress against Ole Miss when he posted 10 points (3-3 FG), four rebounds, and three assists without a single turnover off the bench.

Carr likely still isn’t 100 percent healthy. But he’s in a much better spot today than he was this time last month. The hope now is there are no setbacks for the rest of the season. If that ends up being the case, Kentucky should have the old version of Carr back in the starting lineup shortly. We’ll have a better idea of just how close that is to happening once the SEC releases the pre-South Carolina Availability Report on Friday night. If his name isn’t on the report at all, we’ll take that as another positive step.

“I’m hoping that’s where we are with Drew, where now he can just grow his way back into the game,” Pope said.

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