Dontaie Allen absent from warm-ups before Kentucky-Western Kentucky game
Dontaie Allen did not take part in any of Kentucky’s warm-ups for its basketball game against Western Kentucky on Wednesday night, including the final layup line just before tipoff.
Allen watched the first portion of warm-ups from the UK bench, stayed in the locker room later in the pregame routine, then dribbled a basketball off to the side as the rest of the Wildcats went through their final layup drills.
John Calipari said after the game that Allen injured himself in practice and still didn’t feel ready to go Wednesday evening. Kentucky defeated the Hilltoppers, 95-60.
“I asked Dontaie before the game, how are you feeling? ‘Eh, I’m a little shaky,’” Calipari said.
Calipari said Allen, a redshirt freshman in his third season at UK, declined to play alongside the Wildcats walk-ons in the final moments of their blowout victory over North Carolina on Saturday, though the UK coach seemed fine with that decision after the game.
“I always ask,” Calipari said Saturday night. “My coach did that to me a couple of times (without asking) and I was pissed.”
Allen also didn’t play against Notre Dame in UK’s previous game Dec. 11, and he played just three minutes in UK’s victory over Southern University on Dec. 7. He scored a season-high 14 points in a blowout win over North Florida on Nov. 26.
A former Kentucky Mr. Basketball winner, Allen is averaging 5.1 points and 2.4 rebounds in 11.3 minutes per game so far this season. He’s 6-for-27 from three-point range after making 39.7 percent of his threes last season.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 5:51 PM.
