Lamont Butler won’t play for UK basketball at Ole Miss. Updated Kentucky injury news.
Kentucky men’s basketball is on the verge of hitting a real rough patch in SEC play.
The Wildcats, now ranked No. 14 in the nation, are 15-6 overall and just 4-4 in league play after Saturday night’s emotional home loss to ex-coach John Calipari and the unfancied Arkansas Razorbacks. UK has now lost three of its last four contests.
But, the Wildcats won’t have a lot of time to lick their wounds.
Next up for UK is another top-25 matchup, this one coming on Tuesday night at No. 25 Ole Miss. Chris Beard’s team is 16-6 overall, 5-4 in SEC games and is coming off a game effort in a 92-82 home loss to unanimous No. 1 Auburn on Saturday. Ole Miss has lost four of its last five games.
As Kentucky prepares to head south to Oxford, injuries continue to be a major story for Mark Pope’s team.
News on the injury front for the Cats first arrived Monday night, with the release of the SEC injury report for both Kentucky and Ole Miss ahead of Tuesday’s game. That injury report was updated Tuesday evening.
Here’s the latest news on which players are available, and which players aren’t, for Ole Miss and UK on Tuesday.
Lamont Butler, Kerr Kriisa are out for UK basketball at Ole Miss
Only two players are on the SEC injury report for Kentucky ahead of Tuesday’s tilt at Ole Miss. And both players have already been ruled out of the contest.
Fifth-year guards Lamont Butler and Kerr Kriisa will both be unavailable to play for the Wildcats.
Butler’s ongoing injury absence is of particular concern to both Pope and UK fans alike. The former San Diego State guard has missed four games for the Cats this season, including UK’s last two games.
Butler missed two games for Kentucky in December — wins over Gonzaga and Colgate — after suffering an ankle injury during UK’s first loss of the season at Clemson. In recent times, Butler has battled a left shoulder injury.
That shoulder injury was initially suffered during a Jan. 14 home win over Texas A&M. While Butler initially played through the injury, he hasn’t been the same since. This includes Butler’s most recent performance, in which he tied his career high with six turnovers in a road loss at Vanderbilt on Jan. 25.
Butler missed UK’s road win at top-10 Tennessee last week and Saturday’s home loss to Arkansas.
Following that home loss to the Hogs, Pope didn’t exactly paint a rosy picture when asked for an update on Butler.
“I just don’t know. I’m not sure,” Pope said when responding to a question from the Herald-Leader about Butler’s injury recovery timeline. “We’re kind of just trying to navigate the space. There’s a lot to it that I’m not going to share, because it’s his stuff. But we’re trying to figure out how to proceed right now. And so, we’ll see. I would tell you more, but we just really, genuinely don’t know yet. So we’ll figure out more in the next couple weeks. I assume, at some point, we’re gonna take another shot at this and see how it goes. And we’ll kind of play it by ear.”
This came on the heels of Pope saying this after last week’s road win at Tennessee.
“If and when we get him back, we’re gonna be elated,” he said. “We certainly need him. And in the meantime, guys are gonna step up and compete and fight.”
Butler is averaging 13.2 points, 4.8 assists and 1.8 steals per game this season for UK, and his perimeter defense is something sorely needed by Kentucky, a team that ranks 89th in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom. Kentucky is 3-1 this season with Butler out of action.
Butler’s injury absence for Kentucky is made all the more difficult because Kriisa, the fifth-year guard who previously played at Arizona and West Virginia, remains sidelined after undergoing surgery in December.
Kriisa suffered a fractured foot on Dec. 7 during the win over Gonzaga in Seattle and is now eight weeks removed from surgery. No specific timetable has been publicized for Kriisa’s potential return. Kriisa was averaging 3.8 assists in 17.3 minutes played per game this season at the time of his injury.
With Kentucky now down its top two options at point guard, the Wildcats have turned to several other options at that position.
This includes shifting a trio of larger, off-ball guards —Jaxson Robinson, Otega Oweh and Koby Brea — into backcourt roles. Freshmen guards Collin Chandler and Travis Perry are also now seeing significant game action.
“The coaching staff, they’ve done a great job of — even before the season started — just trying different lineups and playing different people,” Oweh said Monday of UK’s current lineup scramble.
“We all kind of have a sense of how each other plays already, even the people who haven’t been playing as much. We obviously just look at it as (a) ‘next man’ mentality.”
Chandler — a former top-40 recruit in the 2022 recruiting class who is in his first college season after serving a two-year mission trip prior to his college career — played 15 minutes off the bench at Tennessee and 17 minutes off the bench against Arkansas.
In those contests, Chandler has a combined two points, two rebounds, one assist and one steal.
Perry — a Sweet 16 state champion last year at Lyon County and the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky high school boys basketball history — has averaged a little more than seven minutes per game in SEC play for the Wildcats.
“I think we’ve done pretty well,” Oweh added about how UK has responded to recent injury absences. “Those guys, they’re key guys. We definitely miss them. ... I feel like we can still continue to do better, just in a lot of other ways.”
One name that’s no longer on the injury report for Kentucky is Andrew Carr, the fifth-year forward who previously spent two seasons each at Delaware and Wake Forest.
Carr has been a mainstay on the SEC injury report in recent weeks while he has dealt with a back injury. Carr was initially listed as probable on the injury report for Saturday’s game against Arkansas, before being removed from the report prior to tipoff.
Carr played 15 minutes off the bench for UK against the Razorbacks, scoring three points and grabbing four rebounds. Carr played only 89 seconds off the bench against Tennessee.
“Feeling good. I think, you know, it was certainly a tough stretch for me for a little bit. But you know, spent a lot of time with our trainers,” Carr said Monday. “... Been able to kind of recover a little bit here, and starting to stabilize a little bit and feel a whole lot better. So I’m in a good spot.”
Carr explained that he’s been dealing with a cycle of back spasms, but the veteran forward struck an optimistic tone when discussing the recent progress made in his injury recovery.
“The biggest thing I’d say would be just trying to stay as positive as possible,” Carr added. “Super proud of the way guys have stepped up and been able to — all across the board, we’re a little depleted — and so I think everybody’s been trying to take it upon themselves to really step up and help the team as much as possible.”
Carr’s only missed game of the season came Jan. 25 when UK lost at Vanderbilt.
Prior to Saturday’s game against Arkansas, Pope said on UK’s pregame radio show that Carr is “doing the best he’s been in three weeks.” Pope also said that Carr’s back injury has recovered to the point where Carr can now practice with UK, something that hadn’t been happening in recent weeks.
Who is on SEC injury report for Ole Miss before playing Kentucky?
Ole Miss will have all of its players available for Tuesday’s game against UK.
Originally, Ole Miss listed fifth-year guard and longtime starter Matthew Murrell on Monday’s initial injury report. Murrell was listed as questionable to play on Monday’s report, but he was removed from the injury report when it was updated Tuesday.
Prior to Saturday’s home loss to Auburn, Ole Miss also listed Murrell on its initial injury report before that game.
Murrell went on to start like normal for Ole Miss and played 31 minutes against the Tigers. Murrell had 17 points and four rebounds in that game.
This story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 8:18 PM.
