John Calipari provides update on injured Kentucky Wildcats

On3 imageby:Tyler Thompson11/16/21

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Kentucky beat Mount St. Mary’s relatively easily tonight, 80-55, but the Cats were without a handful of players due to injury. Jacob Toppin (shoulder) and Lance Ware (ankle) were out, along with CJ Fredrick, who will miss the remainder of the season with a hamstring injury. After the game, John Calipari provided a brief update on all three, starting with Toppin, who recently had an MRI on his shoulder.

“I hope not but there was no damage damage [for Toppin]. He’s got a bruised shoulder. We’ll see. Lance has the ankle, so whether he’ll play in two days, I don’t know.”

Kentucky lists Toppin and Ware’s official status as day-to-day.

Calipari on Fredrick: “It’s a bad blow for us and for him too”

Calipari said that CJ Fredrick had surgery to repair his left hamstring today. The redshirt junior suffered the injury during pregame warmups vs. Duke a week ago.

“I talked to him before the surgery today and he was in a good frame of mind and we need him,” Calipari said. “He can’t travel for a while but I want him to be around the team because he needs the guys. I’m telling you, folks, he came up to me, when I found out what it was and I hugged him and he said, ‘I’m sorry.’ You’re sorry? Are you crazy? And he said, ‘Coach, I love these guys. I really wanted to play with this group.’ And that’s the kind of kid he is.

“I’m just telling you, you saw how he shoots. You put one more guy out there that can make shots. He also had a 6-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. He doesn’t turn it over. He guards. He will guard and keep people in front and come up with balls. We — it’s a bad blow for us and for him too.”

Fredrick’s out for the year, but as Calipari noted, Kentucky needs Toppin and Ware back in the lineup sooner rather than later. Friday for the Cats’ game vs. Ohio would be nice.

“We’re playing Ohio,” Calipari said. “I haven’t watched any tape on them. They’re 4-0. They shoot 30 threes a game and make 12. If they make 12 against us, we’ll lose. Now, we’ve got to spend a day absolutely saying, okay, how are we going to guard this stuff? They’ve got five guys that all can play.”

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2024-03-28