Kentucky has an absolute juggernaut of a non-conference schedule, one that includes Purdue in an October exhibition matchup, followed by the earliest Louisville battle in history on November 11 — plus Michigan State (Nov. 18), Gonzaga (Dec. 5) and St. John’s (Dec. 20) in the weeks to follow. That’s all before SEC play begins in January, and we all know how that went last season, the league shattering the all-time record for NCAA Tournament teams.
Mark Pope assembled a roster widely seen as a top-10 group and Final Four contender, an early favorite to win the SEC. One of the headlining talents? Jayden Quaintance, a generational piece who combines raw ability and physical tools with youth — he was the youngest player in college basketball last season at Arizona State, yet managed to earn Big 12 All-Freshman Team and Big 12 All-Defensive Team honors while also being named to the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year Watch List in early February.
The issue? He’s coming off a surgically-repaired ACL, undoubtedly impacting his season preparation as he makes the move to Lexington. The talent is obvious, but when will he be ready? And how long will it take to get back to full strength, picking up where he left off as a rising superstar and lottery talent?
It’s complicated.
The good news is that he’s ahead of schedule, saying himself he’d like to be back to full-contact play by September, planning to suit up for Kentucky to start the season. It may be the case where he’s cleared by then, too, physically able to tip the year off with his teammates.
That just might not be Pope’s plan for him. Selfishly, the Kentucky head coach wants his prized portal addition to play every second of every game all year long, but is that the safe move coming off his injury? Knowing his long-term value for this team, he’s not going to take any chances with him playing at less than 100 percent — even if it means he has to miss some time early.
“We’ll see,” Pope said of Quaintance being ready for the start of the season — namely against Louisville on Nov. 11. “The one thing I know about him, he’s an incredible talent and we’re going to go as fast as we can with the absolute most caution that we can. He’s working really hard. He’s making tremendous progress right now. … We’re gonna race back to 100 percent health as fast as we can.”
It aligns with his comments made in an interview with Jon Rothstein back in April, using similar verbiage to describe Quaintance’s recovery timeline.
“We’re in a full rush,” Pope said at the time. “When I say full rush, we’re going to rush back to 100 percent complete health. We’re optimistic that we’re going to have really, really good results in the fall. We’ll see how that goes. But we’re going to rush him back to get to 100 percent healthy before we roll him out on the court.”
In short, it won’t be long before we see Quaintance play either way, but he’s not going to take the floor at less than 100 percent. If he’s back to full strength by October or November, sure. If not, they’ll wait as long as they need to if it means they get to see the best of his abilities with no risk of setback or re-injury.
Trust Pope when he says the results will be worth the wait.
“Talk about a beautiful young person, man. He’s a young — really young, actually. When I say young person, he’s really young, but he’s a beautiful kid,” he said. “I mean, Big Blue Nation is going to fall in love with Jayden Quaintance. He just is. He fits on our roster. He’s just a really special person.”
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