Jayden Quaintance has 'made progress,' but knee injury is 'ongoing thing'

Jayden Quaintance was an unwelcome addition to the injury report last week, declared out ahead of Kentucky‘s matchup vs. Mississippi State due to knee swelling coming off surgery to repair a torn ACL and meniscus, along with a fracture.

That development came after his fourth game as a Wildcat, averaging 5.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 16.5 minutes per contest.

“It’s the recovery process. An injury like this — he’s just had a little bit of swelling, so we’re just kind of monitoring it, and the most important thing is just his health,” Pope said ahead of the matchup on Saturday. “It’s going to be a little start or stop as we go. That’s just the process of coming back from something like this.”

Kentucky went on to beat Mississippi State 92-68 to earn its first SEC victory of the season, but lost Jaland Lowe in the opening minutes after reinjuring his right shoulder to go with Quaintance’s setback. Where do things stand going into the Wildcats’ trip to Baton Rouge on Wednesday? We know the former is awaiting clarity on his status with the parties involved seeing ‘what kind of game plan we can put together,’ Pope said Monday.

As for the latter, his situation is complicated, too.

“He has progressed. He has made progress, feeling better,” he added of Quaintance. “We did some more testing, so that’s an ongoing thing, too, that we’re going to probably figure out more about in the next couple of days as we kind of do consults.”

It’s the next chapter of the ongoing continuity struggle these Wildcats have faced this season with players in and out of the lineup dating back to the preseason — they couldn’t even get through the Blue-White Game without a frustrating setback, Lowe going down with his first shoulder injury in that one.

How do you find consistency when nothing about the personnel is consistent? Pope says when it comes to Lowe and Quaintance, there are no obvious replacements capable of making up exactly what they bring to the table. Others do things well, but differently. Those two pieces are unique.

But every team faces unique hurdles that they must overcome throughout the year.

“Well, it’s been a challenge — not unlike every team faces, right? It’s not a unique challenge in the sense of every team is facing it, but it is a challenge trying to establish an identity, mostly because those two pieces are very unique to our team,” Pope said. “Jaland Lowe brings something to our team that nobody else brings to our team, and JQ brings something to our team that nobody else brings. They’re both important parts of it, so it’s not like we just move on to the next guy in the same way. We have to retool a lot of things as we move on to the next guy.

“That part’s been a little bit of a challenge, but it’s the same challenge that everybody faces every single season.”

The good news is that Pope is not new to any of this, unfortunately. His debut roster in Lexington dealt with countless injuries, including two season-enders in Kerr Kriisa (foot) and Jaxson Robinson (wrist), along with the constant back-and-forth with Lamont Butler (shoulder).

How is that helping him navigate a second straight year of it?

“The answer to that is, mostly in the sense that it just comes easier to my stress level, right? So I’m just like, this is par for the course. This is what we do. There’s no purpose in us stressing or bemoaning or worrying about the fact that we’re having roster changes because of health. It’s just part of the game. It’s just part of the game, so I probably take it a little bit more in stride. 

“But it’s still all the complications that you’d expect that every single team’s facing.”

For now, he’s going to just keep hoping that Quaintance and Lowe not only return, but do so in a timely manner. Their situations are more alike than different with both players wanting to get out there and make a positive impact on the game and help Kentucky win.

In a way, that makes things both simple and complicated.

“I think for (Lowe), it’s just, is there a way that I can functionally do this and get out there and contribute to the team? I think that’s pretty simple. And I think at the end of the day, it’s the same way for JQ,” Pope said. “Like, is there a way I can get on the floor and actually positively impact this game? So there are so many things that you factor in, but at the end of the day, it comes down to that very simple thing for both these guys.

“They desperately want to be on the floor. They desperately want to compete and help, so they’re trying.”