Three UK Athletics staff members were part of the Sarah Bennett Holmes Awards Luncheon held by the UK Women’s Forum – (from left) Cami Moore Williams, 30 Under 30 Award; Heather McAtee, Chair-Elect of the Women’s Forum; and Sandy Bell, Staff Award finalist.
The fact that Kentucky defeated Tennessee without Lamont Butler was impressive enough. They repeated the feat tonight, but Butler and Jaxson Robinson missed the last 8:40 due to Kentucky’s starting point guard’s shoulder injury getting worse. When will Butler and Robinson return to Kentucky? Following the game, Mark Pope provided updates on both.
Let us start with Robinson, who injured his right wrist during practice last Friday and missed his season debut. During today’s match, Robinson wore a brace. Of the two, Pope’s assessment of him was the least hopeful.
During his postgame press conference, Pope stated, “Jax is, you know, I am not sure we are going to get him back anytime soon, but I am hoping, I am praying that we get him back sooner.”
“I feel terrible for Jax right now because, you know, he deserves to be playing and taking part in this. He is a super senior who has contributed to the development of our current identity. Thus, that was the most important factor. I have faith that we will figure out a method to get those guys well as quickly as possible.
What about Butler, who went after a ball and strained his ailing shoulder? Pope claimed that Butler sat up, holding his heart in agony, and that, like the rest of BBN, his heart fell when the moment arrived.
Lamont was simply terrifying. It was literally in front of me. He slid down, and as he extended out, you could see that it somewhat tore his shoulder, which is precisely what we did not want to happen.
