Hard to believe we are less than five days away from Big Blue Madness, but that’s exactly where we find ourselves. Time sure does fly by.
On Monday, Mark Pope stepped up and provided an update on where Kentucky Basketball’s roster is health-wise.
Back in the summer, Trent Noah injured his hamstring, and that kept him out of some workouts as a precaution. Unfortunately, he reaggravated that hamstring and was projected to miss the entire exhibition season.
Before Pope spoke Monday, UK announced that Noah’s
hamstring injury is improving, and they hope he will return in a few weeks. That means he’ll miss most, if not all of the exhibition season, but a return for the start of regular-season play is possible.
That’s good news for a player expected to take a major leap forward in his third year of college. Noah has a lot of the intangibles you like to see on the floor, and if his shot is going in, it opens the floor for everyone else.
As far as Kam Williams, UK said it is “hopeful” Williams will be back in time for the start of the regular season, but that means he likely won’t play in the exhibition season.
Pope then touched on the reinjury Williams suffered and how things are going.
“He obviously kind of re-injured his previous Jones fracture; it didn’t heal all the way correctly, so we had to do a more extensive surgery that we think has an incredible success rate,” Pope said. “So, we have very high expectations of him to be back healthy.”
Williams struggled at times last season, averaging just 6.0 points and shooting it at 36% from deep. But he showed flashes of the freshman form that had a lot of people excited, including eight 3s and 26 points against Bellarmine in Rupp.
We will get our first look at the team Friday night when Big Blue Madness tips off, though several guys will obviously be sidelined for it.
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