This season has not been what Jaland Lowe expected when he signed up to play for the Kentucky Wildcats.

During our first look at the new group, the Kentucky point guard suffered a shoulder injury in the blue-white game. After a couple of weeks off, he played in two games and appeared to finally find his footing against Louisville. That’s when his shoulder popped out again, this time at practice.

Many college basketball players would throw in the towel. Once a shoulder pops at once, it’s liable to happen again and again. Surgery, rest, and a long rehab process are the only long-term fixes. Jaland Lowe chose a different path, one that got him back onto the floor.

He dipped his toe back into the water in the loss to Gonzaga, then logged eight minutes against NC Central. On Saturday night, we saw what Lowe can provide for this Kentucky basketball team, scoring 13 points, grabbing five rebounds, and dishing out a pair of assists in 24 minutes of action.

It hasn’t been easy for Lowe, which made Saturday night’s win that much more gratifying.

“I’m going through one of the hardest times of my life right now. I’m at my dream school right now. I wanna play with these guys,” Lowe told The Field of 68.

“We haven’t been doing the best, so I just wanna be out there with those guys. As a competitor, it’s tough not having something that’s in your control. It’s pretty hard. Especially, you just never know what’s going to happen. It’s been hard, but I have a great group of people around me that keep me positive, and I come in here every day with a smile on my face. I keep going for these guys. I see how much they pour into me, and I just wanna pour back, no matter if I’m on the court or off the court. There’s been some dark days, but it can’t rain forever. We just gotta keep fighting.”

Lowe and his Kentucky teammates are willing to fight

Kentucky showed plenty of fight in the win over Indiana, and it came from unexpected sources. Like Lowe, Mo Dioubate missed a couple of weeks with an injury. He returned against Indiana and was an absolute warrior in the paint, collecting seven offensive rebounds. Brandon Garrison hit a low point in his Kentucky career when he was benched against NC Central. His response was exactly what Kentucky needed.

“That dude poured his heart out tonight, and he showed it in practice the other day, winning sprints, being very vocal, just going out there and fighting,” said Lowe. “That energy spilled onto everybody else.”

The Wildcats were 0-4 against high-major competition. With their backs against the wall, they didn’t win by lighting up the scoreboard with an epic shooting performance. They played defense, rebounded, and got hard-fought buckets near the rim.

“That’s what it’s going to take in order to win. I think our guys know that now,” said Lowe. “We got a taste of that. Shoot, about time we got a taste of that. We’re gonna hold ourselves to that standard, and that’s going to have to be every single game moving forward, no matter who it is. We know the expectations and how hard we gotta play day in and day out.”