Tre Mitchell injury update: 5th-year Kentucky basketball forward didn’t play against Alabama
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Game day: No. 17 Kentucky 117, No. 13 Alabama 95
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Alabama in Rupp Arena.
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After 27 games of this up-and-down 2023-24 Kentucky basketball season, the Wildcats have only been at full strength for 24 total minutes.
Those all came in a home win over Ole Miss on Feb. 13, and came before fifth-year forward Tre Mitchell suffered a left shoulder injury early in the second half.
Mitchell, who missed the two games before that Ole Miss contest with a back injury, has now missed UK’s three most recent games with that shoulder injury.
Mitchell didn’t play for the Wildcats in Saturday’s stunning 117-95 home win over SEC-leading Alabama.
During UK’s pregame radio show Saturday, UK head coach John Calipari said he didn’t think Mitchell would play against the Crimson Tide. Calipari said Mitchell is “still tender” and would be a gametime decision to play or not against the Crimson Tide. But, the fifth-year forward didn’t play.
Mitchell has now missed five of UK’s last six games.
Prior to Kentucky’s road loss at LSU on Wednesday night, Calipari said on UK’s pregame radio show that Mitchell was “making strides” in his recovery.
Kentucky’s coach also said during that pregame radio appearance that he might need to “bring (Mitchell) along slower” in his injury recovery process so that Mitchell can play more physically when he does return to the UK lineup.
Calipari didn’t address Mitchell’s injury during his brief postgame remarks at LSU, and he also didn’t discuss Mitchell on Saturday when speaking to media members after defeating Alabama.
Mitchell is averaging 12.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists this season, and he has started all 22 games that he’s played in for Kentucky after previous college stops at UMass, Texas and West Virginia.
The Wildcats have gone 3-2 this season in games Mitchell hasn’t played in, with wins over Vanderbilt, Auburn and Alabama and losses to Gonzaga and LSU.
Sophomore Adou Thiero has started for Kentucky in all five games that Mitchell hasn’t played in this season. On Saturday, Thiero had 12 points against Alabama. His performance also included two made 3-pointers, the first time in his college career that he’s made multiple shots from deep in a game.
A lack of roster continuity has been a season-long theme for UK basketball: Including Saturday, a total of eight Kentucky players have combined to miss 51 games this season due to injury, illness or other availability issues.
“It’s kind of crazy,” Thiero said Friday about UK’s persistent injury issues. “It’s like the basketball gods don’t want to see us all play together, because they just know what’s going to happen if we all play together. But the time’s coming. Hopefully soon, we’ll have a whole team. And stay like that.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2024 at 3:15 PM.
