Mark Pope says Lamont Butler is 'kind of over' ankle injury while Kerr Kriisa returns to weight room

Worried about any potential setback with Lamont Butler or his ankle not responding well to 33 points in 32 minutes against Louisville? Don’t be. Kentucky‘s starting point guard is back in business after missing back-to-back matchups vs. Gonzaga and Colgate before returning against the Cardinals for his career day at less than full strength.

It was among the best performances in the history of the rivalry, and fortunately, it didn’t come at a cost. Butler was held out of contact practice on Tuesday for precautionary reasons, but that’s the extent of his injury situation.

Mark Pope says Kentucky’s starting point guard is ‘over it’ and the program is ready to ‘move on’ following that brief period of zero depth at the position.

“Lamont’s thing is an interesting thing. There’s part of me that’s like, I want him to be 100 percent healthy, and there’s part of me that, like, I don’t know if I want to get it 100 percent healthy! He was pretty good in that Louisville game,” Pope told KSR on Wednesday. “We’ve been super careful, we kept him out of contact yesterday. But I think he’s over it, right? I think we move on, hopefully, with that.”

His full-time return comes alongside Kentucky’s seven-day break between games ahead of Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic in New York City on Saturday, followed by another ten-day break before the Wildcats take on Brown back in Lexington on December 31. There was some cushion for added rest, if necessary, but a non-contact day at practice is the extent of that for Butler, fortunately.

How about the Wildcats’ other point guard rolling around on his scooter as he inches his way back from surgery to repair his broken foot? Kerr Kriisa actually hit a milestone this week, getting back to some physical activity for the first time after suffering the injury against Gonzaga back on Dec. 7.

“Kerr had his first day in the weight room, doing conditioning and strength training yesterday,” Pope said. “Our goal is to make that so unpleasant that he’s like, ‘I’m getting back on the court.'”

In all seriousness, a timeline for return is a bit foggy given the nature of his injury and surgery. The target was six weeks initially, but the staff is in wait-and-see mode for now until he ramps up activity.

It could be quicker — and that’s the goal — but it could also take longer.

“We’ll see, I don’t know. You know, this is a little bit of a tricky surgery. It could respond fast or it could respond slow,” Pope continued. “We’re gonna do everything in our power to help, he’s gonna do everything in his power to get himself ready as soon as he can. Hopefully that comes sooner rather than later, but there are some things that are gonna be out of his control.”

Good news across the board — especially with just two games in 20 days ahead of the SEC schedule in January. Plenty of time to rest and get (or keep) guys on their feet.