Kentucky’s Mark Pope gives Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr injury updates after Vanderbilt loss

The honeymoon is officially over Mark Pope at his Alma Mater, the University of Kentucky. The 1996 NCAA champion got off to a hot start to begin his coaching tenure at Kentucky, storming to a 12-2 start that included Defeat the dukeGonzaga, Louisville and Florida, but since then, the Wildcats have lost three of their last five games, including two straight.

The latest loss came on Saturday afternoon to an undisclosed but Very game Vanderbilt Commodores A lineup that pulled home court in a purse against a ten ten opponent once again, stunning the Tennessee Volunteers just one week before visiting Kentucky in Nashville.

Now it’s as rabid a fanbase as the big blue nation, don’t expect them to turn on Mark Pope too quickly. It will be understood that losses are expected in the DC game. It will be somewhere around a a dozen teams from the Southeastern Conference that make the NCAA Tournament. To make matters worse, two of Mark Pape’s most important players – Lamont Butler and Andrew Carr – are dealing with long-term injuries.

BUTLER scored 6 points and 3 rebounds in 27 relatively ineffective minutes, but according to Kentucky’s head coach, there was concern that a pre-existing shoulder injury would be fully resolved. But the fifth senior senior kicked him out and gave the wild everything he had.

“Lamont has had a lot now,” Pope said after the loss, per ON3’s Dan Morrison. “We all know what a warrior is. Man, he’s giving us everything he’s got right now, but it’s tough, physically, right away.”

Unlike Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr was unable to get in the floor against the Commodores on Saturday afternoon. A back injury has kept the five-year-old out of practice for several weeks, and on Saturday the pope made the decision Keep him on the game.

“He wants to play so bad and we’ve just seen a drop in his performance because he can’t do that much with his back. We traded in the wrong direction,” Pope said, per Barclay Truac of On3. “He hasn’t practiced in a couple of weeks. And every game it’s kind of like, he’s just beating himself up so bad that he’s back to square one, where he’s having a hard time walking basically.”

Butler and Carr combine to give the Wild over 24 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists per game, but perhaps more important than their impact on Station Station is their collective experience. Together, Butler and Carr have 283 games of experience under their belts, which is vital for a team built primarily through the transfer portal.