Lamont Butler’s season in jeopardy after injury in SEC Tournament. ‘It’s a heartbreaker’
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Game day: Kentucky 85, Oklahoma 84
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Thursday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Oklahoma in the Southeastern Conference Tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
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There was no definitive status report on Lamont Butler after the Kentucky point guard reinjured his left shoulder in the Wildcats’ win over Oklahoma on Thursday night.
But what was said following the UK victory didn’t sound good.
Otega Oweh hit a buzzer-beating shot to lift the Cats to an 85-84 win over the Sooners in the team’s SEC Tournament opener, but much of the attention in the immediate aftermath of the shocking finish was on Butler and his status moving forward.
“I was really proud of our guys and our team, because your heart is just breaking for Lamont,” UK coach Mark Pope said after the game. “We already have (Jaxson Robinson) sitting over there. Now Lamont misses the opportunity to be a part of this. And it is devastating. It’s devastating, guys. For him. It’s like a gut punch.”
Robinson has already been ruled out for the season with a wrist injury, and it’s now possible that Butler could join him on the UK sidelines. Pope couldn’t say when or if Butler would be able to return to the court.
“We’ll put it together piece by piece,” he said. “I’m praying like crazy — I will be — that he can find his way back on the floor at some point this year. It just doesn’t seem fair. And this is not a fair game. I’m not saying that. But, man, I would like so badly for him to be able to step on a court again. We’ll see how it goes. We’ll see.”
The immediate fear on Kentucky’s end is obviously that Butler might not be able to return at all this season, which would end his college basketball career a week before what was supposed to be his final NCAA Tournament run.
Butler — the Wildcats’ starting point guard and the “heart and soul” of the UK team, as Pope and several players have described him over the course of this season — reinjured his shoulder while driving to the basket midway through the first half of Kentucky’s win, which came in Pope’s first SEC Tournament game as the head coach of his alma mater. He originally injured the shoulder in a win over Texas A&M on Jan. 14 and has missed six full games since then.
Butler checked out of Thursday’s game with 9:35 remaining in the first half. He ended up in the UK locker room and underwent X-rays there. Initially, the team said he was questionable to return, but he was officially ruled out for the rest of the night about midway through the second half, not long after returning to the UK bench to watch the rest of the game alongside his teammates.
“We’ll know more, probably by tomorrow,” Pope said of Butler’s status in the wee hours, following a game that ended after 1 a.m. EDT.
Kentucky will play Alabama — the 3 seed in the SEC Tournament bracket and a team that beat the Cats twice in the regular season — at around 9:30 p.m. EDT Friday in the quarterfinals.
The general tone in the UK locker room suggested that Butler’s injury was expected to be serious.
“It’s a heartbreaker to lose him again,” said freshman guard Collin Chandler. “… We’re just all trying to piece together a little bit to try to feel that gap. But we’re ready to step up.”
Chandler also left the game in the first half after getting hit on a drive to the basket, returned after getting stitches and then started the second half in Butler’s place. He also referred to the veteran point guard as the team’s “heart and soul” in the UK locker room. Chandler also referenced the nickname that’s been used recently to refer to Butler — “LeMarch” — a nod to his past heroics on the court this time of year.
Butler hit a buzzer-beater in the Final Four two seasons ago to lead San Diego State to the national championship game, and he was expected to play a major role in a possible NCAA Tournament run for the Wildcats this month.
Kentucky was projected as a 3 seed in the March Madness field even before its win over Oklahoma in the SEC Tournament opener. Obviously, playing without Butler would negatively affect the Cats’ chances in the NCAA Tournament, which begins next week.
“It’s pretty devastating,” Chandler said. “But I think that he can still have an impact in that way, in talking to us every chance that he gets. Timeouts and everything. He’s still going to be helpful. Lamont is a leader on this team. So we’ll still need him every bit of the way.”
Kerr Kriisa, who was slated to be Butler’s backup and play major minutes off the bench, has also been ruled out for the season with a foot injury suffered Dec. 7. If Butler permanently joins Kriisa and Robinson on the sidelines, Chandler appears to be in line to start at point guard, with fellow freshman Travis Perry — a starter in Butler’s place earlier this season — spelling him off the bench.
More of the ball-handling and playmaking duties would also fall to 7-footer Amari Williams — the team’s do-everything center — and veteran guards Oweh and Koby Brea, who combined for 49 points in the win over Oklahoma.
Asked whether he might consider shutting Butler down for the rest of the SEC Tournament — no matter how he feels Friday — in hopes of getting him as healthy as possible for the NCAA Tournament, the Kentucky coach spoke about the importance of this week’s event and referenced the crowd in the Bridgestone Arena, which consisted almost entirely of UK fans.
He also acknowledged the reality of the situation with Butler.
“I mean, I’m not going to put him in harm’s way, for sure,” Pope said. “It’s hard, because this matters. It’s hard to explain. When you walk into this arena and you finish a game like that, and the whole game you see all these people. These Kentucky fans — it’s an arena full of Kentucky fans — and most of these Kentucky fans probably have never been able to go watch a game at Rupp Arena, because they can’t get in. So they save and plan for a year to come here and do this. …
“So there’s just this massive pull of our guys. Like, this is our family. We want to take care of them. We want to perform for them. We want this to be great and special for them. You’re also thinking about the NCAA Tournament. So this is real for us. This matters for us. The NCAA Tournament obviously matters for us. And so we’ll just figure it out the best we can. We’ll make the best decisions for Lamont that we can.”
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 2:51 AM.
