Will Jaland Lowe be back for Kentucky’s season opener? Mark Pope has an update
On the eve of Kentucky’s final exhibition game before the 2025-26 college basketball season officially begins, Mark Pope offered the latest update on injured point guard Jaland Lowe.
During his press conference Wednesday ahead of UK’s preseason matchup with the Georgetown Hoyas, the Wildcats’ head coach said Lowe would participate in “a little bit of non-contact practice” with an eye toward preparing the point guard to play in next week’s regular-season opener.
“We’re being really careful with him so he can be fully healthy when we start the season,” Pope said.
Lowe was a full participant in the early, non-contact portion of Wednesday’s practice. He was running the floor at full speed, making crisp passes and shooting 3-pointers with no visible limitations. He took a seat on one of the Rupp Arena benches once five-on-five play began.
Kentucky will tip off its regular season against Nicholls on Tuesday in Rupp Arena, and the Cats will host Valparaiso in game two on Nov. 7. The team’s first marquee matchup on the 2025-26 schedule will come Nov. 11, when UK travels to Louisville for a rivalry game in the Yum Center.
Lowe suffered an injury to his right (non-shooting) shoulder during Kentucky’s Blue-White Game on Oct. 17, and Pope said last Thursday that he would likely hold him out of contact drills for at least another week while the junior guard continued to heal.
As a result, Lowe missed UK’s 78-65 victory over No. 1-ranked Purdue, the team’s first exhibition game. Pope said before that contest that Lowe was making an “epically fast” recovery and had been “pretty pain free” relatively quickly after suffering the injury.
Senior guard Denzel Aberdeen, a transfer from Florida, started at the point in Lowe’s place against Purdue. Aberdeen was already expected to start for the Wildcats, and sophomore forward Trent Noah slid into Pope’s first five while Lowe sat out the exhibition game.
Aberdeen and Noah were joined by Otega Oweh, Mouhamed Dioubate and Brandon Garrison in UK’s starting lineup. Aberdeen had nine points, three assists and just one turnover in a team-high 29 minutes on the court. Sophomore Collin Chandler and freshman Jasper Johnson also filled in at point guard, and they tallied three assists and one turnover each. Johnson led the Cats in scoring with 15 points.
Lowe, a preseason third-team All-SEC selection, averaged 16.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game as a sophomore at Pittsburgh last season. He started in all 31 of his appearances for the Panthers, missing just one game — due to a concussion — and averaging 35.5 minutes per contest.
This story was originally published October 29, 2025 at 2:07 PM.
