Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope met with assembled media members Tuesday at a press conference-like setting.
One of the key elements he touched on is the health of transfer commit Jayden Quaintance. Quaintance, a 6-foot-9 forward from Cleveland, played his Freshman season at Arizona State in 2024-25. He recently underwent ACL surgery, and the hope is he is ready to go by the start of the season in November.
“We’ll see,” Pope said on if Quaintance will be ready for Kentucky’s season-opener in less than six months. “We’re going to go as fast as we can with the absolute most cautious caution that we can.”
Originally a Kentucky commit when John Calipari was still the head coach, Quaintance was one of the top transfers in the portal this offseason. Now committed to the Wildcats again, he looks to resemble the shot-blocking and rebounding that Amari Williams brought to last year’s team.
Quaintance and Mohamed Dioubate, a transfer commit from Alabama, could be a formidable frontcourt for the Wildcats.
With the Sun Devils last year, Quaintance played and started in 24 games with averages of 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game. He also shot 52.5% from the field.