{"id":544084,"date":"2026-01-18T03:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T03:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/544084\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T03:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T03:45:13","slug":"jeff-goodman-thinks-jayden-quaintance-may-not-play-again-for-kentucky-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/544084\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Goodman thinks Jayden Quaintance may not play again for Kentucky Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have we seen the last of Jayden Quaintance in a Kentucky Basketball<\/a> jersey?<\/p>\n

When Quaintance was recently revealed to have swelling in his surgically repaired knee \u2014 leading to him missing the last three games \u2014 it didn\u2019t sound like something that could knock him out for \u2018too\u2019 long.<\/p>\n

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However, Field of 68\u2019s Jeff Goodman says there\u2019s a real chance we won\u2019t see Quaintance again this season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following Kentucky\u2019s comeback win over Tennessee, Goodman said Quaintance\u2019s status for the near future is \u201ciffy,\u201d and sitting out the rest of the season appears to be a very real option.<\/p>\n

\u201cIffy for the near future. The soonest we\u2019re gonna see him back is probably a week or two, and there\u2019s a good chance he doesn\u2019t come back this year. Who knows,\u201d said Goodman of Quaintance\u2019s status.<\/p>\n

Now, this is just one reporter\u2019s view on the situation, but hearing there\u2019s a \u201cgood chance\u201d that Quaintance doesn\u2019t play again this season is not what UK fans wanted to hear.<\/p>\n

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While this was an amazing week of comeback wins for the Cats, it doesn\u2019t feel like this group is close to being a team capable of making a run to the Final Four. A healthy Jayden Quaintance could go a long way in helping Kentucky reach that kind of level.<\/p>\n

But even if Quaintance is healthy and playing, it\u2019s clear that Malachi Moreno needs to keep playing heavy minutes, while Andrija Jelavic and Mo Dioubate have certainly earned minutes as well. How would Kentucky effectively manage the rotation if Quaintance does play again?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure that\u2019s a problem Mark Pope would love to have. Quaintance has a rare level of talent, one that we saw a glimpse of when he helped the Wildcats rally past a then-top 25 St. John\u2019s squad in Catlanta. He\u2019s also widely projected as an NBA Draft lottery pick for a reason. Even if he doesn\u2019t play again this season, Quaintance will almost certainly be a first-round draft pick, and there\u2019s a good chance he\u2019d still crack the lottery.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unfortunate that there now appears to be a chance we don\u2019t see JQ again this season, but the unexpected rise of Moreno could certainly help offset some of that loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have we seen the last of Jayden Quaintance in a Kentucky Basketball jersey? When Quaintance was recently revealed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,6658,5878],"class_list":{"0":"post-544084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jayden-quaintance","10":"tag-jeff-goodman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115914049357304858","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544084","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=544084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}