Saturday’s game vs. St. John’s proved how important Jaland Lowe is to this Kentucky team. Even though Lowe sat out today’s game vs. Bellarmine, Mark Pope is confident his point guard will play every other game this season.

After the 99-85 win, Pope confirmed that Lowe sat out as a precautionary measure to give his shoulder some time to heal after reaggravating it in the first half vs. St. John’s. Kentucky has ten days off until its next game, the SEC opener at Alabama on January 3. With a brutal conference schedule looming, every second counts.

“He had a little bit of soreness and just a little bit of pain,” Pope said of Lowe’s shoulder. “We just made the calculated decision to, you know, when he steps on the floor, I would like him to be at full strength. I think that’s going to be important for us going forward.

“I expect him to play every game, but this was an opportunity for us to maybe let him heal up a little more, especially with a break coming up now for a few days.  So, we were able to stack — sometimes, there is a big difference between 48 hours and 96 hours or 120 hours.  And so, we are trying to just buy a little extra time for him to heal up fully.”

With Lowe out, Jasper Johnson got some extended run at point guard, finishing with 11 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, a block, and just one turnover in 22 minutes. Pope was pleased with the freshman’s progress, which is crucial given the vulnerability of Lowe’s shoulder.

“I thought he was really good at being forceful downhill, and even in the second half, he got downhill. Maybe was a little bit too greedy with his opportunity to make plays with his teammate. Really fought that gap through three guys, but he was strong enough with the ball to win it and earn a foul. I thought Jasper was really good. I had a lot of confidence in him today on the offensive end.”

After making his Kentucky debut vs. St. John’s, Jayden Quaintance played just eight minutes tonight, finishing with four points and two rebounds. He only played one minute after halftime, which Pope said was due in part to a weird matchup vs. Bellarmine’s frontcourt.

“It’s a big week for him. You know, this is a weird game for him. It’s a weird matchup, weird vibe. Everything about it is weird. I won’t take anything from this game on him. These practices, I can’t tell you how excited we are about them and is going to give us a chance to really be grounded and really work and dig in and forge more identity with him in the lineup, with 2 bigs in the lineup, with the rotation we were kinda thinking about. So, this practice time will be really valuable for us.”

We had another scare when Brandon Garrison left the game with a knee injury. Pope downplayed it as soreness, but held the big man out of the rest of the game as another precaution.

“Lastly, BG, the little knee issue today. BG, we held him out after his first rotation, just because he had a little soreness in the knee. So just again, just a precaution.”

Everyone, stay healthy over the break, please.