Mark Pope, Kentucky basketball were without starting point guard for win over Gonzaga

Kentucky basketball wasn’t at full strength for Saturday night’s overtime win over Gonzaga in Seattle.

UK starting point guard Lamont Butler — who is averaging a career-best 12.9 points per game this season — didn’t play for the Wildcats in their comeback win over the Bulldogs.

Butler’s absence was related to a right ankle injury he suffered in the second half of Tuesday night’s loss at Clemson in the SEC/ACC Challenge. Butler turned his right ankle while landing near the rim.

Butler didn’t go through normal pregame warmups with his teammates on Saturday ahead of UK’s game against Gonzaga. UK coach Mark Pope confirmed on pregame radio that Butler wouldn’t play for Kentucky against the Bulldogs.

Butler played just 19 minutes for Kentucky against Clemson due to both foul trouble and a brief stint on the bench while he recovered from that fall. He scored 16 points against the Tigers and was a UK-best plus-17 while on the floor. Butler also led the Cats with five assists in that game.

During his pre-Gonzaga press conference Thursday afternoon, Pope referred to Butler’s right ankle as “a little bit of an issue,” while expressing optimism that Butler would be able to go against Gonzaga.

That didn’t happen though, which forced UK to make do without Butler, a fifth-year guard who is shooting a career-best 55.1% from the field while averaging 3.9 assists per game.

“His numbers are unbelievable. I’m super proud of him,” Pope said Thursday about Butler. “For a fifth-year guy, he’s been really willing to grow and kind of adopt some things for us and try some new things and the numbers progress he’s made in the first eight games is incredible.”

With Butler unable to play, Kentucky adapted.

Fellow fifth-year guard Kerr Kriisa took over Butler’s spot in the starting lineup. Kriisa finished the game with 8 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds in 27 minutes of playing time.

Travis Perry — the UK freshman guard who is the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky high school boys basketball history — also saw action, playing three minutes in the overtime win.

Kriisa exited the game with more than eight minutes still to play in the second half. He never checked back into the game. On Sunday, Kentucky announced Kriisa would be out indefinitely and would undergo surgery for a foot injury.

With Kriisa sidelined, Kentucky moved fifth-year guard Jaxson Robinson — who played for Pope during the last two seasons at BYU — to point guard down the stretch in regulation and in overtime.

Robinson delivered as well. After a sluggish first half, Robinson scored 15 points and dished out 3 assists in the second half and overtime combined.

Butler’s absence against Gonzaga marked the second time this season that a UK scholarship player didn’t play in a game for the Wildcats because of an injury. Sophomore big man Brandon Garrison missed UK’s game against Georgia State on Nov. 29 due to soreness.

Lamont Butler, Kerr Kriisa injury updates for UK basketball

Following Kentucky’s win over Gonzaga on Saturday night, Pope addressed media members in Seattle. When asked by the Herald-Leader about the injuries suffered by Butler and Kriisa, this is what Pope said.

“Lamont came to shootaround today and we kind of tried to just push (his right ankle injury) a little bit and it just wasn’t working,” Pope said. “Kerr, we’ll go get some imaging as soon as we get back and kind of see where he stands. So we’ll see on those guys. I do think Lamont is making good progress. And hopefully Kerr, Kerr is tough as nails so it will take a lot to keep him out.”

We now know that Kriisa’s injury will keep him out of action for a yet-to-be determined amount of time.

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