Calipari updates Terrence Clarke’s status. ‘After five weeks, you’re still limping?’
Kentucky freshman Terrence Clarke was notable by his absence Wednesday night at Missouri.
Clarke — a five-star recruit in the 2020 class and projected as a possible NBA lottery pick prior to the season — has missed UK’s last nine games with an ankle injury, but — throughout his time on the sidelines — he had still been traveling to road games with the team.
He was not on the bench for UK’s 75-70 loss to Missouri, however.
UK Coach John Calipari said during his pregame radio interview that assistant coach Joel Justus was staying back in Lexington with Clarke as the 6-foot-6 guard continues to work on his recovery. After the game, Calipari said he wanted to see if Clarke could get through practice Thursday and Friday without limping, seemingly teasing a possible return for UK’s game Saturday against Tennessee.
“Joel stayed for that reason, and I want to see the kid practice tomorrow and Friday to see if there’s any chance he can play against Tennessee. So he didn’t need to be here. In basketball, when you’re looking at a guy who — what, we needed a cheerleader? He didn’t need to be here. He needs to get ready to try and play that game Saturday. If he can’t practice, without limping, Thursday and Friday, then he won’t play Saturday. And we’ll just keep it out, and let’s see where this thing goes.
“It comes to a point where you’re out five or six weeks, it means you’re just not capable — the pain’s too much for you to play at all. That’s why we left him at home.”
On his postgame radio show immediately following his press conference with reporters, however, Calipari appeared to question the severity of Clarke’s injury altogether.
“The idea is, if Terrence can practice tomorrow without limping, that’s been five weeks. If he can practice without limping tomorrow and Friday, then we may play him Saturday,” Calipari said. “If he’s limping, I don’t see how he’s going to play. After five weeks, you’re still limping? And there’s nothing wrong — there’s no MRI, there’s nothing there.
“But players know their pain, and what their pain threshold is. So if he’s limping around, I’m not going to play him. If he’s able to play? Shoot, maybe we got another player for this weekend.”
A few hours following those remarks, Calipari tweeted an additional statement clarifying his radio show comments.
“After listening to my postgame comments about (Clarke), my comments were clear to me, but I understand they could be taken many different ways,” began Calipari’s series of tweets, which tagged Clarke’s Twitter account. “(Clarke) has been in pain. I have never asked a player to play that is injured and I never will. We are just trying to figure out — with the approval of our medical staff — can he play through this or not. And he might not be able to, and that’s OK!
“(Clarke) will try to practice tomorrow and Friday and if he does well, he will play Saturday. Believe me, I hope he does well and can play. I know Terrence wants to play! He and I have had conversations about it since he’s been out. I support Terrence no matter what!”
Clarke was originally injured late in the non-conference portion of the schedule and tried to play in the Louisville game Dec. 26, though he couldn’t make it back on the court late in that game after playing 16 scoreless minutes, most of them in the first half. He has not played for Kentucky since.
Going into the Louisville game, Clarke was second on the team in scoring with 12.5 points per game and led the Wildcats with 33.8 minutes per game.
Clarke was the No. 8 overall recruit in the 2020 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, and ESPN projected him as the No. 15 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft before this season began.
In ESPN’s most recent update to its draft board earlier this week, Clarke had fallen to No. 44 overall.
Kentucky (5-11, 4-5 SEC) will host No. 11 Tennessee on Saturday at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 10:52 PM.
