Which UK basketball players are out for game against John Calipari’s Arkansas?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UK basketball will be without three players for game against John Calipari’s Arkansas.
- The Wildcats will be without Jaland Lowe, Jayden Quaintance and Kam Williams for the game.
- Lowe is out for the season, while Quaintance and Williams could still return for the Cats.
Kentucky basketball’s availability report ahead of Saturday night’s game at No. 15 Arkansas featured no surprises.
Mark Pope’s Wildcats will be without junior guard Jaland Lowe, sophomore wing Kam Williams and sophomore big man Jayden Quaintance for the game.
UK (14-7 overall and 5-3 in SEC games) could have as few as nine scholarship players healthy for Saturday’s contest. Freshman forward Braydon Hawthorne represents a potential 10th scholarship player that Pope could play, but Hawthorne hasn’t played yet for the Cats as he preserves a redshirt season.
Quaintance — the 6-foot-10 big who is projected as a lottery pick in this summer’s NBA draft — will miss his seventh straight game due to swelling in his surgically repaired knee. On Thursday afternoon, Pope told reporters that Quaintance is currently “on full shutdown” from on-court work in practice.
“We’re doing everything we can with the performance team. One of the things — just in the immediate moment, (that’s a) challenge — is that every day he misses, he loses some of the strength that they worked so hard to develop,” Pope said.
The 18-year-old Quaintance was Kentucky’s top addition from the transfer portal this past offseason following an impressive freshman year at Arizona State. His freshman season was cut short because of a torn ACL that Quaintance sustained in February 2025. Quaintance underwent surgery for the torn ACL in March 2025 and joined UK as an offseason pickup while he was still in the early stages of rehabbing the injury.
So far, Quaintance has only appeared in four games for Pope’s program. He made his Kentucky debut in a win over St. John’s on Dec. 20, scoring 10 points, grabbing eight rebounds and blocking two shots in the game. But across Quaintance’s three other appearances for UK, he’s combined for just 10 points, 12 rebounds, one blocked shot and six turnovers in 49 minutes.
Quaintance last played for the Wildcats on Jan. 7 in a home loss to Missouri, which he started.
Lowe has already been ruled out for the remainder of the 2025-26 season following a series of right shoulder injuries that required surgery. Lowe had surgery for those injuries Wednesday. Pope has said that Lowe’s rehab process is expected to take six months.
Lowe is expected to receive a medical redshirt for this season, which means he would still have two seasons of NCAA eligibility left.
Williams suffered a broken foot in Kentucky’s home win over Texas on Jan. 21, and he had surgery to address that injury last week. While Pope hasn’t ruled Williams out for the rest of the season, the UK coach has acknowledged it will be tough for Williams to return in time.
Following Saturday’s contest at Arkansas, Kentucky will have nine games left in the regular season.
“There’s maybe an outside, outside, outside chance that Kam could rejoin us at some point this season,” Pope said this week.
On the other side, Arkansas (16-5, 6-2) has a clean bill of health ahead of Saturday’s game. None of John Calipari’s Razorbacks were listed on the availability report.
Saturday’s game marks the second matchup between UK and Arkansas since Calipari departed Lexington for Fayetteville following a 15-season run as the Wildcats’ head coach. Last season, Arkansas came to Rupp Arena and handed UK a 10-point loss.
UK and Arkansas are set for a 6:30 p.m. ET start Saturday on ESPN.
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 8:10 PM.
