Lamont Butler is warming up ahead of the Louisville game (UPDATE: He's playing)

Lamont Butler - Dr. Michael Huang, Kentucky Sports Radio

UPDATE (4:45 PM): Mark Pope just confirmed that Lamont Butler WILL play vs. Louisville.

“Lamont, we’re just going to throw him out there and see how it goes. He had a half practice yesterday, and came back — most importantly, after those he came back this morning and he felt pretty good. So, he’s gonna give it a go, and we’ll see how it goes in live play.”

It looks like Lamont Butler will give it a go vs. Louisville. Kentucky’s starting point guard is warming up with his teammates ahead of today’s game after missing the last two with the ankle injury he suffered vs. Clemson. We’ll get official word from Mark Pope on Butler’s status during his pregame conversation with Tom Leach about 30 minutes before tipoff.

Lamont Butler ladies and gents.

pic.twitter.com/CgYBn9UhAC
— Mario A Maitland (@MarioMaitland_3) December 14, 2024

Lamont Butler is out here getting up shots in pregame. pic.twitter.com/aIip3OSPWE
— Lee K. Howard ☀️ (@HowardWKYT) December 14, 2024

First man out for warm-ups for Kentucky .. Lamont Butler.
— Aaron Gershon (@agershon99) December 14, 2024

Yesterday, Pope said Butler did some solo work on the court on Thursday and the staff wanted to see how he performed in Friday’s practice. According to Jack Pilgrim, Butler was a full participant in today’s shootaround.

“Lamont was on the court a little yesterday,” Pope said on Friday. “He didn’t do anything with us but he was on the court a little bit yesterday and we’ll kind of see how it goes today. We’ll try to roll him out there. I’d love to have him. He really helps us. I just don’t know if he’s going to be quite ready.”

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Butler ranks second on the team in scoring at 12.9 points per game to go along with 3.9 assists, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per contest. He’s shooting 55.1% from the field and 33.3% from the three-point line. After Kerr Kriisa also went down with an injury, fracturing his foot in the Gonzaga game, Jaxson Robinson filled in admirably at point guard, leading the Cats to the overtime win and Wednesday’s victory over Colgate.

That said, having Butler back today is big. Louisville point guard Chucky Hepburn is the Cards’ best player, leading the team in scoring (14.1 points per game), assists (4.8 assists per game), and steals (3.2 steals per game). He’s also a proficient three-point shooter, making 1.5 threes per game at a 32.6% clip. We’ll see what those numbers are like with Butler guarding him.