Kentucky basketball is awaiting the debut of big man Jayden Quaintance. The transfer from Arizona State has not appeared in a game for the Wildcats yet, as he has been rehabbing from an ACL tear.
Over the past few months, we’ve gotten continuous good news from Mark Pope on Quaintance, and today comes another positive update.
The potential lottery pick has completed “crushed” his final strength test and is nearing his return. He’s even doing 5-on-5 on-court work with grad assistants, so he should be fully practicing with his teammates very soon.
“We’re working him back into some parts of practice. He can’t be a full scout team body quite yet. We’re not going to let him do that yet. We’re going to bring him back slowly. He’s got some run in with the GAs (graduate assistants) playing 5-on-5. We grabbed a couple kids from the rec center, and he had a lot of fun doing that. He felt pretty good.” Pope said.
Quaintance’s highly anticipated debut is seemingly on the horizon for the Wildcats. After the Cats gave up 20 offensive rebounds in their loss to North Carolina, the 6-foot-10 big man will look to help out the Wildcats in some much-needed areas in the frontcourt.
When exactly will JQ’s debut come? That remains to be seen, but it looks like there’s a very good chance it’s by the time SEC play tips off on January 3 vs. Alabama.