Jaland Lowe’s short-term absence could actually benefit this UK basketball team
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky will rest Jaland Lowe for exhibitions, targeting return by Nov. 4.
- Absence opens backup minutes for Aberdeen, Chandler and freshman Jasper Johnson.
- Veteran exhibition foes Purdue and Georgetown will stress backups and coaching plans.
Make no mistake, Mark Pope and the rest of the Kentucky Wildcats want Jaland Lowe back on the basketball court as soon as possible.
And it sounds like Lowe’s absence from the UK lineup — after he suffered a shoulder injury during last Friday night’s Blue-White Game — won’t be a prolonged one.
Pope’s update on the situation Thursday afternoon suggested that Kentucky’s starting point guard would miss both of the team’s exhibition games — against Purdue on Friday night and the Georgetown Hoyas on Thursday — but could be back for the regular-season opener against Nicholls on Nov. 4.
“We’ll probably keep him out of live contact for at least another week, just to make sure,” Pope said. “He’s a massively important part of this season, so we’re gonna make sure that he’s healthy before he’s rolling out.”
In the meantime, perhaps Lowe’s absence will be a good thing for this Kentucky team?
Lowe won’t get the experience of playing against No. 1 Purdue and his counterpart on the Boilermakers — preseason national player of the year Braden Smith — but the new Wildcat already has plenty of high-major reps at the position. He played 35.5 minutes per game as Pittsburgh’s starting point guard last season.
His college basketball pedigree is so deep that he was basically anointed UK’s starting point guard for the 2025-26 season before summer practice even started. The biggest question mark at the position: Who would back him up?
As Lowe rests that right shoulder — his non-shooting shoulder, it’s worth noting — the candidates for backup point guard minutes will get a couple of high-profile, low-stakes opportunities to show what they can do.
Lowe’s injury will also give Kentucky’s coaches a chance to try out some different looks at the position in games that won’t matter for the win-loss records.
“It gives everyone an opportunity,” Pope said. “It gives us a chance to rethink the way we do things. It’s actually interesting. We’ve tailored some things to Jaland, specifically, and so it’s just how this goes, right? Sometimes when you get too specific in how you manage the game and get really, really creative, it leaves you vulnerable to change. When you stay really general, it’s easier to kind of move through those changes.”
The top three options to fill in for Lowe are Florida transfer Denzel Aberdeen — a senior who was likely to start as one of the off-ball guards anyway — sophomore returnee Collin Chandler, and highly touted freshman Jasper Johnson.
“It’s an unbelievable opportunity,” Pope said. “You know, DA is proven, proven, proven. And Jasper is so excited to step in here and take his first shot at this thing. Collin Chandler has been through this with a year for us and has been playing elite-level basketball.”
Aberdeen appears to be the most likely fill-in starter for Lowe.
Earlier in the week — during his appearance at the Wildcat Tipoff Luncheon in Louisville — Pope heaped praise on the veteran guard who won a national title with the Gators last season.
“Denzel Aberdeen has been unbelievable at the point for us so far in the first three and a half weeks of training camp. He’s been incredible,” Pope said. “He’s a veteran, veteran player. It’s not that often that you have a guy on your team that was playing as the horn sounded in a national championship win. He’s done it all, seen it all. He’s an incredible combo guard. He’s probably more comfortable at the point than he is the 2, so he’s going to be great there.”
Pope added that Johnson has shown “amazing acuity” at point guard and predicted that Chandler would be a “formidable force” at the position.
Each of the three plays the game differently from the others. They also play it differently than Lowe, who is a crafty, quick playmaker and officially listed at 6 feet, 1.5 inches. Aberdeen, Chandler and Johnson are all listed at 6-5.
If Lowe were healthy for the exhibition season, he’d surely get the lion’s share of the minutes at the 1, and the trio of potential backups would be spending most of their time on the court in more off-the-ball situations.
That might better prepare them for their expected roles in the regular season — all three are projected to play major minutes for the Cats — but it wouldn’t give UK’s coaches much tangible information about who might be the best option when Lowe needs a rest during the regular season. Or, worse, what to do if he should suffer another injury (or get into foul trouble) when the games really matter.
The competition level is what really makes this a learning scenario for the Kentucky coaches.
This is the first season in which new NCAA guidelines allow for Division I teams to schedule other Division I teams in exhibition games without the need of a waiver. In the past, these games would likely have been played against D-II, D-III or even NAIA teams.
That wouldn’t have been much of a measure for Kentucky’s backup point guards.
Instead, it’s Purdue and Georgetown, with the Boilermakers boasting Smith at the position and the Hoyas featuring junior point guard Malik Mack, who averaged 12.9 points, 4.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game for the team as a sophomore and has earned All-Big East preseason honors.
“And that’s why I’m so grateful for these games,” Pope said. “Normally, with these exhibition games, the best you’re probably getting out of it is getting your guys under the lights, in front of our fans, getting used to the arena, getting used to the regimen of the day, the emotion — getting all that stuff into a comfort level.”
Pope acknowledged that his Cats would still get to do all of those things, but game one will pit his backups against the best point guard in the country. And Mack will be a tough test, too.
“And so it’s an unbelievable opportunity to go really see who we are at the very highest level,” Pope said. “We’re not going to see who we are at a medium level. We get to go compare ourselves to the very, very best right now, and it’s going to give us an incredible vision of how we have to grow. And so it’s a gift. I love it. I don’t think ever have I been more of a fan of an NCAA decision than this one. This is awesome.”
