Kentucky's Mark Pope gives Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr injury updates after Vanderbilt loss

Yesterday at 02:23 PM

The honeymoon period is officially over for Mark Pope at his alma mater, the University of Kentucky. The 1996 NCAA champion got off to a hot start to begin his coaching tenure at Kentucky, storming out to a 12-2 start which included wins over Duke, Gonzaga, Louisville and Florida, but since, the Wildcats have dropped three of their last five games, including two in a row.

The latest loss came on Saturday afternoon to an unranked but very game Vanderbilt Commodores squad that has pulled off a home court upset over a top ten opponent once already this season, stunning the Tennessee Volunteers only a week prior to Kentucky’s visit to Nashville.

Now for as rabid of a fanbase as Big Blue Nation can be, don’t expect them to turn on Mark Pope too quick. There will be an understanding that losses are expected in SEC play. There will be somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen teams from the Southeastern Conference that make the NCAA Tournament. To make matters worse, two of Mark Pope’s most important players — Lamont Butler and Andrew Carr — are dealing with lingering injuries.

Butler scored 6 points and pulled down 3 rebounds in 27 relatively ineffective minutes, but according to Kentucky’s head coach, there was concern that a pre-existing shoulder injury was going to keep Butler out altogether. But the fifth-year senior gutted it out and gave the Wildcats everything he had.

“Lamont has got a lot right now," Pope said after the loss, per Dan Morrison of On3. "We all know what a warrior he is. Man, he is giving us everything he's got right now but It's hard for him, physically, right now."

Unlike Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr was unable to take the floor against the Commodores on Saturday afternoon. A back injury prevented the fifth year senior from practicing for multiple weeks, and on Saturday, Pope made the decision to keep him out for the game.

"He wants to play so bad and we were just kind of seeing a decline in his performance because there's just so much he can't do with his back. We were trending the wrong direction,” Pope said, according to Barkley Truax of On3. “He hasn't practiced in a couple weeks. And every game it's kind of like, he just gets beat up so bad it's back to square one, where it's hard for him to walk essentially."

Butler and Carr combine to give the Wildcats over 24 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists per game, but maybe more important than their impact on the stat sheet is their collective experience. Together, Butler and Carr have 283 games of experience under their belt, which is vital for a team that has been built primarily through the transfer portal.

The post Kentucky’s Mark Pope gives Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr injury updates after Vanderbilt loss appeared first on ClutchPoints.