Player Availability Reports are coming to the NCAA Tournament

We’ve grown accustomed to player availability reports for SEC football, basketball, and baseball games over the past year and a half. This March, they’re coming to the NCAA Tournament.

Yesterday, the NCAA announced that it will implement player availability reports for the 2026 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Teams will be required to submit the reports to the NCAA the night before games and again two hours before tipoff. The reports will be made available to the public, and players who aren’t designated as “questionable” or “out” will be presumed available. Inaccurate reporting might result in penalties for the school.

The NCAA is making the change as part of its efforts to shield student-athletes from sports betting influences and protect the integrity of the game.

“After months of thorough discussion and exploration, I applaud the Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Committees for taking such important action,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a press release. “Implementing player availability reporting is a major step to increasing student-athlete protections by alleviating pressures for the enhancement of their college experience.”

Kentucky fans know how agonizing it can be to wait for injury news in March. These reports should help at least a little bit, even if their intent is to curb sports gambling pressure and harassment.

Mark Pope on Denzel Aberdeen, Jaland Lowe’s injuries

We won’t get our first player availability report until conference play begins in January. Right now, Denzel Aberdeen and Jaland Lowe would probably be listed as questionable heading into the season opener vs. Nicholls.

Aberdeen was a late scratch from the Georgetown exhibition due to a minor leg injury. Afterward, Pope said that it’s nothing major and he expects both Aberdeen and Lowe, who continues to recover from a minor shoulder injury, back “within the next week or two.”

“DA has just got a sore leg,” Pope said in his press conference. “He’s trying to get 100% healthy, and so we’re taking a precaution with him. I’d like to have, you know, I don’t know where J. Lowe is going to be, but I’d like to have those guys back in action within the next week or two, I’m hoping.”

“I think they’re both close,” he added in his conversation with Tom Leach. “We’ll proceed with caution on both of them. They are guys we’d like to have through the course of the season, but I think they’re both close, and so we’ll just kind of take it day by day by day and see where it goes.”

Kentucky tips off the season vs. Nicholls Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET at Rupp Arena (SEC Network+).