Kentucky basketball wasn’t at full strength, again, for impressive SEC road win at Auburn
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Game day: No. 22 Kentucky 70, No. 13 Auburn 59
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Auburn at Auburn, Alabama.
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Earlier this week, the Kentucky men’s basketball team finally got its first experience with a full-strength roster this season.
In Tuesday night’s win over Ole Miss, the Wildcats had all 16 players available for the first time as fifth-year forward Tre Mitchell returned from a two-game absence due to a back injury.
But that clean bill of health was short-lived for coach John Calipari’s team: Mitchell left the Ole Miss game with 16:13 to go in the contest with a left shoulder injury and didn’t return. After getting checked out on the UK bench, Mitchell left for the Kentucky locker room and didn’t return to the Rupp Arena floor.
Mitchell’s impact was felt in his 21 minutes on the court: In the first half alone, Mitchell had five points and five rebounds, along with two assists. He led the Wildcats in first-half plus-minus at plus-16.
Afterward, Calipari said Mitchell went for X-rays, and he had no further injury update.
Mitchell’s injury was singificant enough to cause him to also miss UK’s next game, an impressive 70-59 road win on Saturday night at Auburn.
Calipari told UK’s pregame radio show Saturday that Mitchel wouldn’t be available to play against the Tigers, and Calipari didn’t mention Mitchell during his postgame press conference.
This marked the third missed game of the season for Mitchell. He previously missed a pair of games with a back injury.
Sophomore Adou Thiero started in Mitchell’s place and recorded 14 points and eight rebounds. Thiero made all six of his free throws and had several highlight-reel dunks in the big Kentucky win.
Thiero played a career-high 33 minutes in the win.
Tre Mitchell brings poise to a young Kentucky basketball team
Mitchell averages 12.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists this season, and he has started all 22 games that he’s played in.
“You know, Tre is a warrior. He’s been a warrior for us throughout the season and for a good majority of that time he was playing, he was playing hurt. He was trying to impact the team with his will and you could see his experience, his veteranship,” Orlando Antigua, UK’s associate coach, told reporters earlier this week
“He’s one of our best rebounders out there, aside from being able to (be) steady and calm everyone on the offensive end as well. He’s a big piece that’s been missing, but it also gives an opportunity for some of these other guys to step in and step up. That’s why they’re here. They’re here to be able to take advantage of those opportunities, some guys have done that.”
Following Tuesday’s game, Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard also had plenty of praise for Mitchell, who is in his first season with the Wildcats after previous college stops at UMass, Texas and West Virginia.
“I think Tre Mitchell is one of the best players in college basketball,” Beard said. “In my opinion, he’s not a stat-sheet guy, but there’s no denying the poise and the composure he gives this young, really talented, team.”
Figuring out rotations and on-court pairings with players constantly shifting in and out with availability issues has been a season-long struggle for Kentucky.
Among Kentucky’s regular rotation players, only Jordan Burks, Antonio Reeves and Reed Sheppard have been available for every game this season. Of this trio, only Reeves and Sheppard have appeared in all 25 UK games. Reeves is the only Kentucky player to have started all 25 contests this season.
Including Saturday, eight UK players have combined to miss a total of 49 games due to injury, illness or other availability issues this season.
What was it like for the Wildcats to finally be at full strength — if only for 24 minutes — against Ole Miss?
“Oh listen, that was amazing,” UK sophomore center Ugonna Onyenso said Tuesday, after setting a Rupp Arena record for blocks by a Kentucky player.
“That was amazing. We talked about it before the game. We were so happy that everybody was back playing today. Hopefully, we will stay healthy because we need everybody in March.”
Herald-Leader Staff Writer Ben Roberts contributed to this article.
This story was originally published February 17, 2024 at 5:42 PM.
