‘Changes everything we do.’ Jaland Lowe shows value in vital UK basketball win
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky basketball defeated St. John’s in the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta.
- UK guard Jaland Lowe suffered a shoulder injury in the first half, but later returned.
- Lowe was effective in the second half, scoring 13 points and dishing out three assists.
The stark contrast in the performance of this Kentucky basketball team with, and without, Jaland Lowe on the court came into full focus Saturday afternoon.
Kentucky’s 78-66 comeback victory over No. 22 St. John’s as part of the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta was keyed by a resilient showing from Lowe, who played only seven seconds early in the first half before re-injuring his right shoulder.
“Sheesh, man, everything was going through my head,” Lowe said postgame of his time in the UK locker room after that first-half injury. “I knew after a couple minutes that I was going to be good... I knew if I was even a little bit good to be able to play I was going to give it a go. I told these guys at halftime, ‘I’m going to go out there and I’m going to live with it.’”
With Lowe out of action, UK’s offense was wholly inefficient in the opening period. Mark Pope’s team mustered just 25 points while shooting 35.7% from the field and committing 11 turnovers. in the first half At the break, UK trailed St. John’s by seven.
The way in which Lowe departed the game — he immediately clutched his right shoulder and marched to the locker room after defending a drive to the rim — suggested he was done for the day, and likely longer.
But Lowe, who has been repeatedly praised for his toughness, emerged for halftime warmups and checked back into the contest with 17:07 to go and UK still down by seven points.
What followed was a vintage performance by Lowe, who transferred to UK this past offseason after two years as a starter at Pittsburgh. All of Lowe’s counting stats came in his 15 second-half minutes: 13 points (on 5-for-7 shooting), three assists and three rebounds. Kentucky outscored St. John’s by 20 points during his time on the floor.
That plus-20 number was a team-best statistic, outpacing even the impactful UK debut of sophomore forward Jayden Quaintance (plus-18 in 17 minutes) following his recovery from an ACL tear.
“I feel like J-Lowe brings a toughness and leadership to the game that we need,” Quaintance said. “Whenever he’s on the court he’s telling everybody where to be, he’s making sure everybody is in the right spots, he’s making sure everybody is making the right cuts. Offensively and defensively, he’s a vocal leader, and he’s like the effort leader. You can tell he is giving everything that he has.”
“They know the amount of work I put in. They know how much I care about them. I just do what they tell me to do,” Lowe said of his teammates. “If they want me to go out there and play some defense, I’m going to go play the hardest defense I’ve ever played in my life. I’ve just got a bunch of guys that I love and that I trust and I’d do anything for. After that, my game just speaks to the rest. I’ll just feed off the energy that those guys are feeding back into me.”
The statistics speak for themselves regarding the way Lowe, who wears a sizable brace on his right shoulder, lifts Kentucky’s ceiling. UK went from turning the ball over on 32.4% of its offensive possessions in the first half to just 14.7% in the second half. Kentucky’s offense hummed to the tune of 1.6 points per possession in the second period. The Wildcats outscored the Red Storm by 19 points after the break.
In fact, the 53 second-half points scored by Kentucky were the third-most points scored by Pope’s team in a half this season.
Both the basketball-trained eye of Lowe’s teammates, and that of opposing coaches, it’s clear that Kentucky operates differently when Lowe is in the mix.
“He’s very difficult to guard in a pick-and-roll, and he makes plays going to the rim like a Tiny Archibald,” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said of Lowe. “He can take the contact and still make shots. He can still make plays. He’s a really good pick-and-roll guy. They’re a totally different basketball team when he’s on the court.”
The obvious double-edged sword with Lowe is that the more he’s on the court, the greater the chance there is that he might injure his right shoulder for what would be a fourth time this season.
Lowe initially suffered the injury to his non-shooting shoulder during UK’s Blue-White Game in October. He came back for the Cats’ second game of the season and played a season-high 30 minutes in the road loss at Louisville, before sustaining a shoulder setback two days later in practice.
His most recent return came earlier this month during UK’s embarrassing loss to Gonzaga in Nashville. That came after a five-game absence. Lowe has since played in four straight games. But in a curious twist, Kentucky’s projected starting point guard has now come off the bench in all six of his appearances for the Wildcats.
Lowe’s ability, for now, to shake off his shoulder ailment — coupled with Quaintance’s season debut — means Kentucky is set to carry momentum into the start of SEC play.
Following wins over Indiana and St. John’s, UK closes nonconference play Tuesday afternoon at home against Bellarmine before the 18-game gauntlet of an SEC schedule begins Jan. 3 at Alabama.
Optimism, for the first time in a month, is prevalent when projecting forward for Kentucky. And that’s likely to remain the case, so as long as Lowe finds a way to stay on the court.
“We’ll continue just to proceed with caution with him,” Pope said. “But he’s just so tough. He’s so tough. You saw the impact that he can have on our team. You saw one half without J-Lowe and you saw one half with J-Lowe. I’m voting for the half with J-Lowe actually, because he just changes everything we do.”
