Jaland Lowe injury update: Latest revealed after Kentucky guard's shoulder issue

Kentucky guard Jaland Lowe has been dealing with a shoulder injury since getting hurt during the team’s Blue-White game in a collision with Wildcats star Otega Oweh. After missing some practice time, Mark Jones of KSR reported that Lowe took part in a partial practice on the court on Wednesday, and he’s expected to be ready for the season.

That’s great news for Big Blue Nation. When the injury originally happened, Kentucky head coach Mark Pope provided some insight into on Lowe’s condition, knowing that he would be ready to battle through this bit of adversity.

“He tweaked his shoulder. So, we’ll see. Kind of sat him down out of precaution. We’ll know more tomorrow,” Pope said. “We’ll probably get some imaging tomorrow, kind of see how it responds tomorrow. He’s an incredibly tough young man, so I’m sure, whatever it is, he’ll battle through it well.”

After spending two seasons at Pittsburgh, Lowe transferred to Kentucky this offseason. He was the No. 45 overall player and No. 15 point guard in On3’s 2025 Transfer Portal Player Rankings. Lowe started in all 31 of his appearances at Pittsburgh last season. He averaged 16.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game, while shooting 37.6% from the field and 26.6% from beyond the arc.

Media members are expecting Lowe to have another impressive campaign. Earlier last week, Lowe was named a preseason All-SEC Third-Team selection. The only other player who earned all-conference honors for Kentucky was Oweh, who was labeled the preseason SEC Player of the Year.

For Lowe to meet expectations, he’ll need to improve his shooting efficiency. Pope is confident Lowe won’t have any trouble putting the ball in the hoop.

“He’s an elite-level playmaker on ball screens — I mean, he can fling the ball everywhere on the court, make every pass,” Pope said this summer. “He was our leading 3-point field goal percentage shooter in five-on-five competition this summer — just right under 42 percent. We’re incredibly excited about what we believe he’s going to do in terms of efficiency this summer.

“… He’s a lightning-quick, get wherever he wants on the court, leader — vocal leader. He actually has the beautiful skill of not being overly concerned with whether other people like him in any given moment. That’s actually a really important skill as a leader. Sometimes you gotta be a truth teller. Sometimes you gotta hold people accountable, and for those of us that are born pleasers, sometimes that can be really challenging. He’s not.”

All in all, Lowe scored eight points in the scrimmage last Friday before leaving with the aforementioned injury. The Wildcats will kick off their regular season schedule against Nicholls State this coming Tuesday, so they’re hoping the transfer guard is out there and ready to rock.

— On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this article.