Down to its fourth option at point guard, No. 17 Kentucky is searching for some consistency overall when it hosts Vanderbilt on Tuesday night in Lexington, Ky.
In his first start of the season, an 82-78 loss at Texas on Saturday, freshman Travis Perry finished with six points and three assists in 28 minutes, and coach Mark Pope’s updates on the first three options Monday were not optimistic.
Lamont Butler is averaging 12.5 points, 4.6 assists and 2.8 rebounds per game but gave way to ongoing shoulder pain on Feb. 11. He has not returned to live practices, Pope said.
Jaxson Robinson (13.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 1.7 apg) is not even using his injured right hand/wrist yet, the coach said.
Finally, Arizona transfer Kerr Kriisa was initially expected to return by now after foot surgery, but Pope acknowledged the possibility of Kriisa taking a medical redshirt season.
“Right now, he’s anxiously trying to get back into this thing, and the recovery has probably been a little slower than any of us would like,” Pope said.
The Wildcats knocked off then-No. 5 Tennessee before falling to Texas. They have lost five of their last eight games in the rough-and-tumble Southeastern Conference.
Kentucky (17-8, 6-6 SEC) held a five-point lead over Texas with less than four minutes to play but allowed a 14-1 run. Leading scorer Otega Oweh had 20 points and forward Amari Williams added 18 points and 12 boards, but a lack of backcourt depth and focus wore down the Wildcats.
“One of the things that’s been really special about our team is we’ve done a great job of kind of being in the moment, being onto the next play,” Pope said.
