Jaland Lowe played the majority of last season with a broken finger

Have to imagine him being healthy will help this team take a huge step.

The Kentucky Wildcats are practically wrapped up with their roster for the 2025-26 season. With several returnees, two high commitments, and a plethora of transfer portal additions, Mark Pope and his staff have to be ecstatic about the potential of this incoming team.

One player in particular is Pittsburgh transfer Jaland Lowe.

An All-ACC Third-Team member this past season for the Panthers, Lowe comes to Lexington primed to make a big jump with a roster full of potential NBA talent. It will also help that he will be completely healthy as they enter this season.

Marland Lowe joined WLAP’s Sunday Morning Sports Talk recently and talked about how Jaland played through a broken finger for the majority of the season. That is where the initial conversations with De’Aaron Fox came in as well.

“When the season started last year…I’ll put this out to people…from November through January, he was basically playing with a broken ring finger on his left hand,” said Lowe. “He had a splint on his hand after he fractured it during the Cincinnati scrimmage. It was tough. I reached out to De’Aaron Fox and asked, ‘What do you do? I saw that you have a splint to tie your hand up; how can he get better with this? He’s not shooting well.’”

That’s when Fox’s sales pitch of the UK program came into play. One thing led to another, and Lowe will be suiting up for the Cats this season.

With a full summer to get into the system this staff runs, as well as the ability to learn and do so healthy, let’s hope we see a significant jump from Lowe this season. If that is the case, the BBN might be in for a special season.