Life was easier for Mark Pope as a coach with Jaland Lowe on the floor in the second half vs. St. John’s — not so easy when his standout point guard got sent to the locker room just seven seconds into his first run after reaggravating his injured right shoulder.
Whatever it takes to get as much out of the guy who scored a team-high 13 points on 5-7 shooting with three assists, three rebounds and zero turnovers in 15 minutes after intermission, finishing as a plus-20 overall.
It’s a different team with No. 15 out on the floor, to put it nicely.
“We had like 15 minutes in the second half where we had the crew together, and it was extraordinary,” Pope said of that St. John’s performance. “The coaching got way easier, actually. It was fun.”
Now it’s just about keeping him on the floor — because that’s been much easier said than done up to this point, Lowe dislocating his shoulder in the Blue-White Game back in October before doing it again in practice just two days after the Louisville loss in early November.
After the early scare in Atlanta against the Johnnies, Pope sat him against Bellarmine to give him a full two weeks off before SEC play. Fortunately for us, keeping him in bubble wrap over the holidays worked, because he’s back to practice as a full-contact participant — although there is a catch.
“Jaland is looking terrific. We’re just being cautious with him,” he said Monday. “We’re trying to keep him — for the rest of the season, we’ll probably keep him around somewhat limited full-contact reps, but he’s gotten some in over the last two days. He’s looked really good.”
How does that translate to games? Well, Pope clarified that Lowe is not going to be on a minutes restriction, but he will be on a contact restriction.
Whatever it takes to keep him out of harm’s way and keep him on the floor for the Wildcats.
“J-Lowe is just going to be a — it’s just a contact restriction. It’s just making sure — for him, it’s just, I can’t have him out there as a tired body. That’s when he’s most exposed.”
Then it’s a balancing act not only with how many minutes he plays, but when he plays them. That’s certainly been a topic of conversation for Big Blue Nation with fans questioning Pope’s decision to bring Lowe off the bench rather than starting him in the role he was brought in to play as PG1.
Six games played out of 13 for the Wildcats, zero starts. Why?
“We’re trying to limit his contact and exposure so much in practice that it’s — the thinking behind that is like, let’s protect the integrity of the group that we have getting most of the reps in practice to actually be able to go perform on the court, just to give some continuity,” Pope said.
Is that the right way to handle Lowe’s situation? He’s not totally certain — because it’s a tricky injury and one misstep could result in losing him for the season. They’re navigating that accordingly, taking it all day by day.
Maybe bringing him off the bench pushes him down some on opponents’ scouting reports? If it’s not the J-Lowe Show every night, maybe teams won’t be so focused on taking him out of the game? Maybe you’re just learning how to win games without him so the weight of the world isn’t on his shoulders, no pun intended, as one of many pieces and not the piece?
Needless to say, it’s complicated.
“That might not be the right answer. We’re going to kind of explore that as we go,” Pope continued. “It also gives you a chance to maybe extend his healthy window — which we’re hoping is going to be the entire season — by not being the headline guy at the beginning of a scout.
“That could be, certainly, something that goes into our thinking about it. So there’s some continuity in those ways.”
Anybody with eyes can see and anyone with ears can hear the difference Lowe makes on this roster. All you have to do is dig into that second-half film vs. St. John’s — it’ll tell you the whole story.
Opponents probably know that, too, unfortunately, but that’s the nature of the beast with good basketball players. All Pope can do at this point is try to protect the Pittsburgh transfer the rest of the way so he can keep helping Kentucky win games.
“Clearly, Jaland Lowe is a massively important key to this team, and we function better on the court when he’s on the floor, for sure,” he continued. “We’ll kind of continue to weigh and try to strike the right balance with keeping him as healthy and as protected as we can, and also get him on the court as much as we can.”
