If anyone says they know what this Kentucky basketball team is going to do in SEC play, they’re either a die-hard fan or a die-hard hater.
The Wildcats’ full roster played together for 20 minutes and seven seconds, to be exact, during their 13-game nonconference portion of the schedule that concluded Tuesday with a 99-85 win over Bellarmine.
Granted, the SEC won’t be as difficult to navigate as it was last season, when four of its teams finished ranked in the top 10; Auburn and eventual national champion Florida earned No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. There are no league teams ranked in the current top 10.
After Kentucky got embarrassed in its first four games against top-notch opponents, including a 35-point blowout loss to Gonzaga, the Cats are trending in the right direction.
The sample size and competition of UK’s best wins — over Indiana and St. John’s — may not even hold up as good wins when those schools play through their respective league schedules.
There’s not enough evidence to say the Cats can compete when it’s still too hard to even predict who’s available to play.
The seven seconds is how long point guard Jaland Lowe lasted in the first half of their win over St. John’s on Saturday before tweaking his right shoulder injury and did not play again until the second half.
The Cats looked good in that second half, as forward Jayden Quaintance made his season debut and chipped in 10 points and eight rebounds.
On Tuesday, the Cats played without Lowe again. It marked the seventh game he’s missed since transferring from Pitt and being the only true point guard on UK’s roster.
Against Bellarmine, Lowe wasn’t missed much, especially with Tulane transfer Kam Williams knocking down 8 of 10 3-pointers to score a career-high 26 points. He finished one 3 shy of tying Tony Delk’s Rupp Arena record of nine 3s.
This column will be updated.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.