When healthy, Kentucky has one of the best starting fives in college basketball

by:Drew Franklin•about 20 hours•

DrewFranklinKSR

kentucky-best-lineup — Oct 29, 2024; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward Andrew Carr (7) huddles up with teammates before the game against the Minnesota State Mavericks at Rupp Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

We don’t need a deep dive into analytics to see that the injury bug has greatly impacted Kentucky this season. Anyone following the Wildcats realizes that Kentucky is a different team without its first, second, and third point guard options, plus Andrew Carr’s lingering back issues. Though Mark Pope won’t use the injury report as an excuse, health has limited Pope’s team lately.

Hopefully, Kentucky will return Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson in the very near future. With Carr back in the starting five for the first time earlier this week, Butler and Robinson are the two missing pieces to the original starting five, considered one of the best in the country.

We will go into a deep dive into the analytics to support that statement. Evan Miyakawa, a Ph.D. statistician and data scientist who covers college basketball, shared the top-performing lineups this season, and Kentucky’s core five ranks among the best of the best.

Miyakawa found that the group of Butler, Oweh, Robinson, Carr, and Williams is the seventh-best lineup in the country, behind lineups at Clemson, Houston, Duke, Purdue, Auburn, and St John’s.

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Evan Miyakawa’s top-performing lineups in college basketball

Here are the top performing lineups in CBB this year at https://t.co/cegyfz96ax, adjusted for opponent strength (min 200 possessions):

Clemson's new starting lineup has been the best group in the country by a good margin. Houston, Duke, Purdue, and Auburn also in the top 5. pic.twitter.com/ytg0Q55Cuh
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) February 21, 2025

Kentucky hasn’t started those five players together since the Alabama game in Lexington on Saturday, January 18. Even then, Carr played only 18 minutes with nagging back problems before he missed the following game at Vanderbilt, the beginning of eight straight games without Pope’s original five.

Butler and Robinson aren’t expected back for Alabama, so Kentucky will play a ninth game without college basketball’s seventh-best five. The Wildcats need them back ASAP beyond the trip to Tuscaloosa.