Jayden Quaintance injury update: Kentucky announces forward's status vs. Mississippi State

Kentucky forward Jayden Quaintance is out for Saturday’s game against Mississippi State, according to the SEC availability report. He made his first start of the season last time out against Missouri.

Quaintance played 18 minutes in the loss to Mizzou at Rupp Arena. It marked his fourth appearance of the season after jumping into the lineup in December as he recovered from an ACL injury suffered last season.

Quaintance made an immediate impact in Kentucky’s victory over St. John’s, which marked his first appearance of the season. He had 10 points and eight rebounds in 17 minutes of action as the Wildcats defeated Rick Pitino and the Red Storm 78-66 Dec. 20.

Prior to his arrival in Lexington, Quaintance played one season at Arizona State in 2024-25 after arriving as a Five Star Plus+ recruit. He averaged 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game across 24 starts for the Sun Devils prior to his injury.

Jayden Quaintance is the only player listed for Kentucky ahead of Saturday’s home game against Mississippi State. The Bulldogs listed forward Sergej Macura as probable for the matchup, which tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network.

Kentucky is looking to bounce back from its first SEC loss of the year earlier this week. UK held an eight-point lead with 4:37 to go, but Mizzou went on a 15-2 run down the stretch to eventually hand the Wildcats their first loss in a conference home opener in 13 years.

Missouri took a one-point lead into halftime against Kentucky, but the Wildcats appeared to find their stride out of the break. They went up by as many as eight points, which came with 4:37 to go, and had a 6-0 run right before that time.

From there, though, Missouri rattled off seven straight points before Brandon Garrison hit a jumper with 2:17 to go. That proved to be Kentucky’s last made field goal of the game as Mizzou scored the final eight points, capping the game-sealing 15-2 run.

Otega Oweh was a bright spot for Kentucky on Wednesday, dropping 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including 3-of-4 from three-point territory. He was the only Wildcat in double figures as UK shot 43.1% from the field, including 7-of-18 from downtown.

Kentucky has now lost its last two games after entering conference play on a five-game winning streak. The Wildcats fell to Alabama 89-74 in the SEC opener over the weekend, and frustration continues to mount around BBN through Mark Pope’s second season as head coach.