Kentucky’s Lamont Butler is ready to go for the NCAA Tournament. ‘I’m feeling good’

Kentucky earned a 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament bracket. The Wildcats will play Troy on Friday in Milwaukee, and Mark Pope’s team is in prime position to give the UK head coach his first March Madness victory.

The best news of all for the Cats on Selection Sunday was the confirmation that starting point guard Lamont Butler will be good to go for the Wildcats’ first-round game.

“I’m feeling good,” Butler said from the team’s watch party in Rupp Arena on Sunday night. “Feeling a lot better than I was the last couple days. I’m just excited to go out there and have the opportunity to reach the Final Four and win a national championship at Kentucky. So I’m really excited, and I can’t wait to be out there.”

Butler — a fifth-year guard who Pope has described as the “heart and soul” of this Wildcats team — left Kentucky’s SEC Tournament opener Thursday night with an injury to his left shoulder, which has been bothering him for the past two months.

He initially suffered an injury to his left shoulder in a victory over Texas A&M on Jan. 14. He ultimately missed four games before returning to the court last month. In his second game back — a victory against Tennessee in Rupp Arena — Butler reinjured that shoulder and missed another two games.

Butler sat out the remainder of UK’s SEC Tournament win over Oklahoma but missed the Cats’ loss to Alabama in the SEC Tournament on Friday night. Pope said after the defeat that the nature of the latest injury to his left shoulder was different from the specific ailment that led him to miss those six games over the past two months.

The player himself said the same thing Sunday night.

“It was definitely heartbreaking that I couldn’t go out there and play after that,” Butler said. “My shoulder, it feels different. This is a different pain I haven’t really felt. You know, I haven’t really been injured that much in my career. So having these injuries this year has kind of been tough, but I was just glad we got the win (over Oklahoma) after that. I’m excited to play in the tournament, and I can’t wait.”

He also missed two games earlier in the season with an ankle injury.

Butler played four seasons at San Diego State and helped lead the Aztecs to an appearance in the national championship game two years ago. He hit a buzzer-beating shot in the Final Four during that run to send San Diego State to the title game, where the Aztecs lost to UConn.

This season at Kentucky — his final year in college basketball — Butler has averaged 11.5 points, 4.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game, further establishing himself as one of the best perimeter defenders in the country.

And now he’ll be ready to go for UK’s game against Troy on Friday.

This story was originally published March 16, 2025 at 7:38 PM.

Ben Roberts

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-429-2848

Ben Roberts is the University of Kentucky men’s basketball beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He has previously specialized in UK basketball recruiting coverage and created and maintained the Next Cats blog. He is a Franklin County native and first joined the Herald-Leader in 2006. Support my work with a digital subscription