Lamont Butler was listed as a game-time decision ahead of Kentucky‘s showdown against No. 4 Alabama on Saturday. Butler ultimately played but his shoulder seemed to occasionally bother him throughout the game. After the loss, Kentucky head coach Mark Pope revealed how close Butler was to not playing and provided an update on his condition.
“We didn’t know. He hasn’t done any contact. At breakfast this morning, I saw him lift his arm a little bit. I don’t know, maybe he could go,” Pope said. “I thought he gave a really heroic effort and played well and we need to get him as healthy as quick as we can.”
Butler played 32 minutes in the loss, recording 17 points, eight assists and four rebounds while shooting 6-14 from the field. His eight assists tied his career-high in a single game.
Butler was also pivotal to Kentucky’s defensive efforts, guarding Alabama standouts such as Mark Sears for most of the game. During a postgame conversation with UK Radio Network’s Tom Leach, Mark Pope provided more details on Butler’s gritty performance.
“Lamont is just a winner, man,” Pope said. “He kind of gave us everything he had today. He hasn’t practiced, hasn’t really even moved his arm for the last two days. And we put him through the early warm-ups, and he felt like he was going to give it a shot, and then, we rolled him out there to the second warm-up and he was like, ‘No, I’m OK.’
“He was kind of hiding that left arm a little bit, but what an incredibly courageous effort. Thirty-two minutes and eight assists to one turnover and a really difficult defensive assignment. It’ll be great to get him back to full speed, but man, he gave us everything he had today.”
Kentucky will enjoy a mid-week bye this week and won’t take the court against until Jan. 25 when it squares off against Vanderbilt on the road. The brief respite couldn’t come at a better time for the ‘Cats.
Along with Lamont Butler, Kentucky forward Andrew Carr was battling through an injury against Alabama. Pope is hopeful the Wildcats’s short break will give them enough time to fully recover.
“We’ve got to take advantage of it,” Pope said. “Ours is probably coming at the best time for us in terms of trying to find a pathway to a little better health for our guys. I didn’t think that was the determining factor of the game tonight, but to be fresh and for our guys to get fresh and to get healthy is going to be probably key No. 1.”
