{"id":506847,"date":"2025-12-31T04:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T04:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/506847\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T04:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T04:26:11","slug":"alabamas-labaron-philon-pretty-likely-to-play-vs-kentucky-and-mark-pope-knows-hell-be-really-hard-to-contain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/506847\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama’s\u00a0Labaron Philon ‘pretty likely’ to play vs. Kentucky – and Mark Pope knows he’ll be ‘really hard to contain’"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those interested in a high-level battle between First Team All-SEC competitors and KenPom top-20 foes<\/a> to open conference play, you\u2019re likely to get your wish. For those wanting the path of least resistance for Kentucky<\/a> while stacking quality wins and building a resume after its slow-as-molasses start, well, sorry.<\/p>\n

Saturday is going to be a serious road test for the Wildcats against Alabama, and the Crimson Tide are expected to have the star of the show running things in Tuscaloosa. <\/p>\n

Labaron Philon<\/a>, a legitimate All-American candidate who is averaging 21.9 points, 5.6 assists and 3.6 rebounds per contest while shooting 55.1 percent overall and 42.2 percent from deep, missed the team\u2019s midweek matchup vs. Yale with a leg injury suffered in the team\u2019s pre-Christmas win over Kennesaw State. That absence can be described as precautionary, according to Nate Oats, and he\u2019s likely to suit up in the SEC opener against Kentucky on January 3.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not confirmed just yet, but he\u2019s trending in the right direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabaron is going through treatment,\u201d Oats said following the 102-78 win over Yale on Monday. \u201cHe\u2019s got a left leg injury from a contusion he got in the Kennesaw State game. It\u2019s definitely not super serious, but he couldn\u2019t play in a game now. We\u2019re off tomorrow, hopefully he gets a lot of rehab. I think it\u2019s pretty likely he plays Saturday, but I don\u2019t want to say for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philon was thought to be a potential first-round draft selection last offseason before he shocked the college basketball world with a return to Alabama for his sophomore campaign. The former four-star, top-40 recruit was exactly as advertised through the nonconference schedule for the Tide, and now, he\u2019s ready to pick up right where he left off against the Wildcats.<\/p>\n

Mark Pope knows the challenge that comes with that individual matchup \u2014 he saw it firsthand on three separate occasions last season. The 6-4 guard scored 15 points with four rebounds and four assists in a 102-97 win at Rupp Arena, then added seven points, three assists, two rebounds and two steals in the 96-83 victory at Coleman Coliseum to take the regular season sweep.<\/p>\n

His best effort came in the SEC Tournament, though, unfortunately, going for 21 points, four assists, three rebounds and three steals in a 99-70 blowout to send UK home from Nashville.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, he\u2019s really hard to contain,\u201d Pope said of Philon.<\/a> \u201cHe\u2019s so great off the bounce, and I\u2019ll tell you the thing\u00a0that I don\u2019t think he gets enough credit for \u2014 maybe he does \u2014 but he is an elite-,\u00a0elite-, elite-level playmaker off the bounce, man. A passer, finding guys.\u00a0He\u2019s got a real skill of threading the needle\u00a0when he needs to get in balls where he does. He\u2019s unbelievable at hitting the short roll\u00a0and kind of push-screen rolls. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got an unbelievable first and second and third step, he\u2019s a multiple move guy, he finishes well around the rim, he\u2019s shooting at an elite-level clip.\u00a0He\u2019s a big-time player.\u00a0He\u2019s putting together a great season.\u201d<\/p>\n

A potential secret weapon for Kentucky to unleash on Philon and the Tide? His former prep school teammate, Jasper Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two guards were close friends during their time together at Link Academy with Philon actually recruiting the Lexington native to play with him in Tuscaloosa. Now, they get to face off on the big stage to open SEC play. <\/p>\n

Needless to say, the Kentucky freshman has had this one circled on his calendar after choosing the Wildcats over Alabama and North Carolina as a blue-chip recruit himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely (it\u2019s a special matchup).\u00a0I mean, I feel like every game is special, but that one is special for sure,\u201d Johnson said after the Bellarmine win. <\/a>\u201cThey were in my top three, and Coach Oats and I had a good relationship, but this was a better move for me.\u00a0I know a couple of their players personally \u2014\u00a0like Labaron, who I\u2019ve played with for many years.\u00a0So yeah, it\u2019ll definitely be an exciting game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope certainly hopes this one goes a little bit better than his first three against Oats and the Tide last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For those interested in a high-level battle between First Team All-SEC competitors and KenPom top-20 foes to open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,4452,1477,7910],"class_list":{"0":"post-506847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jasper-johnson-25-overtime-elite","10":"tag-labaron-philon-24-link-academy","11":"tag-mark-pope-91-newport-senior"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115812288692941544","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}