Jayden Quaintance Makes Debut, Will Be Key In Shaping Kentucky's Identity
When Jayden Quaintance arrived to the postgame presser after Kentucky’s 78-66 win over St. John’s, he brought three people with him and made the opening statement.
He and point guard Jaland Lowe, along with senior athletic trainer Brandon Wells, strength coach Randy Connor and assistant Mikhail McLean, standing to his side, were wearing T-Shirts to commemorate Quaintance’s return.
“It’s been a long time in the making and I couldn’t have been here at all without the people on my right,” Quaintance said. “We’ve been here everyday since June just working every single day…. Without these guys, I don’t think I could have been here today.”
Kentucky head coach Mark Pope said he’s never worked with a performance team this dedicated, and the work Quaintance and those three put in paid off on Saturday. The big man finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks and was +18 in just 17 minutes.
“I felt great,” Quaintance said. “I felt like my conditioning was good. I feel like my guys had prepared me really well in all the practices leading up to now.”
The big man has been out since last February, where he sustained a torn ACL while at Arizona State. He crossed half court at Kentucky for the first time just a couple weeks ago, and he had a few practices leading up to Saturday’s game. He was on a minutes restriction.
“JQ is all the way back,” Pope said. “So for us, it’s going to be like, ‘How do we feel in the morning.’ That’s just going to be the way it is. His health is so good right now that it’s going be how does it feel in the morning, how do we go from here? We have a huge game on Tuesday and then we have a break where he have a whole solid week plus of practice where we have to roll him back in. I think the minute restriction will work it’s way out relativity quickly.”
It’s clear with Quaintance on the court, Kentucky is a much better basketball team. He has so much length, gobbles up every rebound and plays with joy. It seems to rub off on everyone else.
“He’s different,” senior guard Otega Oweh told The Field of 68. “He’s one of the main people that’s going to help us with our identity, which is being physical, getting stops. I feel like when we double down and we have JQ out there, we’re a really good defensive team. The energy he brings is huge. It felt really good having him out there, and he was everywhere. So that was huge for us.”
More than anything, it felt like Kentucky continued to find its backbone on Saturday. Pope doesn’t have the shooters to play like they played last season. So instead, he’s completely flipped the script and bought into being a tough, rugged, defensive-minded team. Kentucky out-rebounded St. John’s by 11 and out-scored the Johnnies by 10 in the paint.
“I think he’s done a brilliant thing of changing the whole mindset of the team,” Rick Pitino said. “‘Let’s be tough. Let’s be physical.'”
Quaintance played a huge part in that on Saturday, but it wasn’t just him. The entire Kentucky roster has bought into the mindset shift lately. And it’s why after a 5-4 start to the season, where fans were questioning Kentucky’s effort, everything’s completely flipped.
The Wildcats are now 8-4 with one buy game remaining on Tuesday before SEC play. The momentum is on Kentucky’s side.
“And they’re only going to get stronger with [Quaintance] and Lowe,” Pitino said. “You guys all need to learn a lesson as writers, because you’re expecting Kentucky to be this great basketball team with all these injuries. You can’t be a great basketball team without two of your best players.”
Kentucky now has its team back, and who knows, the Wildcats could be a sleeper to win a wide open SEC and ultimately live up to their preseason ranking.
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