Mark Pope talks injury status of Andrew Carr, Lamont Butler ahead of Arkansas showdown

Will Mark Pope have two key starters, Lamont Butler and Andrew Carr, back in the lineup for Saturday’s game against Arkansas? We might be looking at another game-time decision for both of the veterans.

Butler missed Kentucky’s last game, a win over Tennessee, primarily due to a shoulder injury that has been bothering him since the Texas A&M victory on Jan. 14. Meanwhile, Carr has been a regular on the SEC Availability Reports over the last several games due to a nagging back injury, but he’s only missed one full game. That being said, he saw just 89 seconds of action against the Volunteers early in the first half before Pope pulled him for good.

“Yeah, that was all me, man. I’m just a chicken. I’m a big chicken,” Pope said Thursday of his decision to leave Carr on the bench. “I was carrying so much stress. Andrew is such a warrior. He won’t talk about discomfort, he won’t talk about pain. Every single time you talk to him he’s like ‘I’m good to go! Let’s go!’ But he also needed a little bit of time just to heal. We hadn’t had any practice time but he was cleared. And we’re kind of like, can we buy him a few more days? If we put him in now is it a setback? You’re just managing all those things.”

Pope didn’t say for sure if Carr would be ready to play when John Calipari makes his highly-anticipated return to Rupp Arena in a couple of days. Don’t be shocked if Carr’s name pops up on Friday night’s initial Availability Report. If he doesn’t go, look for Ansley Almonor to soak up the same amount of minutes he did in a great showing against Tennessee.

“I thought I was incredibly brave to put (Carr) in the game. To check him in the game,” Pope joked. “Man, I am full of courage. My courage lasted like 90 seconds. Then my courage was gone. Hopefully it’ll last longer in the future.”

Kentucky didn’t need Carr to beat Tennessee on the road earlier this week, but looking at the long-term picture, Pope and his staff will need the 6-foot-11 stretch forward back at some point this season.

As for Butler, his status also remains up in the air. However, Pope seemed a bit more matter-of-fact about the point guard’s injury. Butler is on the mend, but is still not cleared to practice as we’re roughly 50 hours until tipoff with the Razorbacks as of the time Pope spoke with the media.

“Lamont is doing good. Still not cleared to practice today,” Pope said. “I know I’m not sharing all the information on Lamont. We’ll kinda figure that out as time goes by. We’re just trying to figure that part out.”

Kentucky has done well with the “point guard by committee” scenario in a couple of games this season, but like with Carr, the Wildcats can’t afford to lose Butler (both for his defense and offense) for an extended time. We’ll find out more when the SEC drops the first Aavialabilty Report on Friday night.

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