Kentucky and Alabama have both been missing key players. Who’s playing Saturday?
The first SEC men’s basketball weekend of the season means the first mandatory injury reports for Kentucky, Alabama and other programs around the league.
And that brought some good news for the Wildcats on Friday night.
UK submitted its initial injury report to the league with no names Friday, meaning every player on Mark Pope’s team is expected to be available to play against No. 14 Alabama on Saturday.
That’s not necessarily a surprise. Pope said earlier in the week that Jaland Lowe and Jayden Quaintance — the two Wildcats most likely to end up on the injury report — were doing well in the team’s post-Christmas practice sessions, implying that both would be fully ready to go for the SEC opener.
Lowe suffered a right shoulder injury during the preseason and reinjured his shoulder during practice on Nov. 13. He also tweaked the shoulder in the first half of UK’s win over St. John’s on Dec. 20, sitting out the rest of that period before returning in the second half to help lead the Cats to their biggest victory of the season.
The junior point guard sat out Kentucky’s win over Bellarmine on Dec. 23 — the final nonconference game on the schedule — and Pope has since said that he’s holding him out of some contact portions of practice to keep him fit for games.
Quaintance made his UK debut in the St. John’s game — after being sidelined for 10 months due to a major knee injury — and played the majority of the second half against the Red Storm. He was a key player in Kentucky’s victory that afternoon but played sparingly in the win over Bellarmine three days later, part of a decision by Pope to ease him back into competition.
A 6-10 sophomore, Quaintance is projected to be an NBA lottery pick in this year’s draft and will be integral to Pope’s plans for the rest of the season.
There were six Alabama players on the injury report Friday night, and four more remained when the Crimson Tide submitted their final report Saturday morning.
Crimson Tide guard Labaron Philon — the leading scorer in the SEC — was listed as “probable” Friday night after missing the team’s victory over Yale on Monday night with a leg contusion. He was removed from Saturday’s report, so Philon will play against the Wildcats.
SEC guidelines define “probable” as a 75% chance that a player will play in the following day’s game, with “questionable” equating to a 50% chance and “doubtful” lowering the chances of participation to 25%.
Highly touted freshman London Jemison, who also missed Monday’s game with a knee injury, was also listed as probable on Friday’s report and then designated as a game-time decision Saturday morning. Senior guard Latrell Wrightsell, one of Alabama’s top players, was listed as probable Friday, too, though he was removed from Saturday’s injury report.
A surprise addition to the injury report was starting forward Taylor Bol Bowen, who was listed as questionable Friday night and a game-time decision Saturday morning. Bowen has started 10 games for Bama this season and played 21 minutes against Yale on Monday night, grabbing a team-high nine rebounds in that victory.
Davion Hannah, a reserve guard who has been sidelined with what Oats referred to as a “medical condition,” was listed as questionable, too. He was ruled out Saturday morning. Freshman center Collins Onyejiaka, who has not played since early November, has also been ruled out for the Kentucky game.
The SEC instituted injury reports for league games beginning last season. Teams are obligated to send initial availability reports to the conference by 8 p.m. ET on the eve of gamedays. A final availability report must be submitted no later than 90 minutes before game time.
Kentucky (9-4) will play at Alabama (10-3) at noon ET Saturday on ESPN.
This story was originally published January 2, 2026 at 8:22 PM.
