Kentucky’s Andrew Carr plays in win over Mississippi State after status was in question
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Game day: No. 6 Kentucky 95, No. 14 Mississippi State 90
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss.
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Kentucky forward Andrew Carr played for the Wildcats against No. 14 Mississippi State on Saturday night after showing up on the team’s pregame injury report.
UK defeated the Bulldogs 95-90, with Carr scoring 13 points and grabbing six rebounds in 21 minutes.
Carr’s status for the Top 25 battle with the Bulldogs came into question with the release of Friday night’s SEC injury report, which listed him as “questionable” for the game. That designation means a player has a “50% chance” to play, and the Herald-Leader was told that Carr was unable to practice with the Cats earlier this week.
A mandatory update to the injury report Saturday evening shed no new light on the situation — listing Carr as a “game-time decision” — but the UK starter went through full warmups with the Wildcats and was in the starting lineup for the 8:30 p.m. ET tipoff in Starkville.
UK coach Mark Pope confirmed on his pregame radio show that Carr had been out of practice but did not specify what ailment was keeping him sidelined.
“He’s doing good,” Pope said. “He’s battling this deal. And so he didn’t practice all week. We put him in shootaround today, and he kind of felt OK. We’re going to warm up tonight and just see. And we’ll make a game-time decision. And then if he’s actually a go, then we’ll kind of make a minute-to-minute decision.”
Carr’s absence would have been a big blow for UK, which suffered an 82-69 loss at Georgia on Tuesday night and was looking to avoid a second consecutive SEC loss against a formidable Mississippi State team in what ended up being a raucous environment.
The injury reports are new for conference games this season. The other official designations on the days before games are “out” (0% chance to play), “doubtful” (25%), “questionable” (50%) and “probable” (75%).
On game day, the team must issue a final, updated report, and there are only three options: “available,” which means a player will be available to play, “out,” which means a player will be sidelined or the “game-time decision” that Kentucky has assigned to Carr, meaning “coaches an/or medical personnel need to evaluate the student-athlete in pregame warmups before deciding whether he can participate in the game.”
Carr — a 6-foot-11, 235-pound fifth-year player and a regular starter for UK — was averaging 11.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 26.9 minutes per game. He had just six points against Georgia earlier this week, ending a run of six consecutive games scoring in double figures.
Only one Kentucky starter has missed a game this season. Point guard Lamont Butler was sidelined with an ankle injury for wins over Gonzaga and Colgate. Otega Oweh, Jaxson Robinson and Amari Williams have started every game for the Cats, as has Carr.
Backup point guard Kerr Kriisa remains sidelined with a foot injury suffered in the win over Gonzaga on Dec. 7, and there is no clear timetable for his return to the court.
UK has now defeated Mississippi State in 19 straight regular-season games, with 10 of those victories coming in Starkville, one of the longest SEC road winning streaks in program history.
Saturday
No. 6 Kentucky at No. 14 Mississippi State
When: 8:30 p.m. EST
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Kentucky 12-3 (1-1 SEC), Mississippi State 14-1 (2-0)
Series: Kentucky leads 103-21
Last meeting: Kentucky won 91-89 on Feb. 27, 2024, in Starkville, Mississippi
This story was originally published January 10, 2025 at 10:57 PM.
