Jaland Lowe is in 'really good shape' following shoulder injury -- but Mark Pope will 'proceed with caution'

How is Jaland Lowe doing ahead of Kentucky’s first exhibition matchup vs. No. 1 Purdue on Friday? There is more good news than bad news to share, which is certainly the welcomed outcome compared to how we felt watching him go down with a painful shoulder injury in last week’s Blue-White Game.

The junior point guard got tangled up with Otega Oweh and fell to the floor grabbing his non-shooting shoulder with the training staff coming out to pop it back into place. He couldn’t move it walking back to the locker room, Historic Memorial Coliseum left speechless.

Feel free to exhale, though, as Lowe is doing just fine here on Monday with the staff receiving excellent news on his status. The star transfer may not be ready to suit up against the Boilermakers — Mark Pope says they’re still going to be cautious with him — but it’s certainly not a long-term concern for the Wildcats.

“Jaland is doing great. He has improved so much in the last 48 hours, it’s really, really positive,” he said at Kentucky’s Tip-Off Luncheon in Louisville. “We’ll kind of proceed with caution but he is an ultimate competitor and he’s doing great and he’s going to be in really good shape.

“We’ll see, I’m going to have to be super courageous just to throw him on the court here soon but we’ll see how that plays out but he’s doing really, really well. We’ve been pleased with his progress the last 48 hours.”

Sarandon Raboin of WHAS11 was there to capture Pope’s back-and-forth with Tom Leach — with Lee Anne nearly put on the spot to share her own version of the update.

At Kentucky's Tip-Off Luncheon, Mark Pope gave an update on how Jaland Lowe is doing after injuring his shoulder in the Blue and White game.

"I'm going to have to be super courageous to throw him on the court here soon, but we'll see how that plays out" pic.twitter.com/3RYiPCbOTT

— Sarandon Raboin (@sarandon_raboin) October 20, 2025

Pope’s update on Lowe comes just a day after news broke that the Pittsburgh transfer’s MRI came back negative and his shoulder was “not a full dislocation.”

KSR’s Jacob Polacheck reported Saturday that a source close to Lowe believes the “conservative outlook” regarding a timeline for return is somewhere between “1-3 weeks.”

“He will be fine,” the source said. “Should be ready soon.”

Prior to the injury, Lowe finished with a team-high nine points on 3-6 shooting and 1-2 from three to go with two rebounds and one assist in 12 minutes in the Blue-White Game.

“(Lowe) tweaked his shoulder, so we’ll see,” Head coach Pope said Friday. “We sat him down out of precaution.… We’ll see how it responds tomorrow. He’s an incredibly tough young man, so I’m sure whatever it is, he’ll battle it well.”

It sounds like Kentucky avoided the disaster scenario with Lowe — even if it means we don’t get to see him against No. 1 Purdue this week.