We’re officially in the endgame now of Jayden Quaintance’s return to live basketball games.
During his Monday call-in show, Kentucky Basketball head coach Mark Pope announced that Quaintance’s return is coming very soon.
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“We’re worked up to days and hours, maybe a week or so. Not weeks or months,” Pope said of Quaintance’s return timeline. “That’s pretty exciting. I know he’s excited.”
That would suggest we could see Quaintance as early as Saturday’s showdown with Rick Pitino and the St. John’s Red Storm in Catlanta. However, that’s going to be a very physical, hard-fought game. Might not be the best game to have someone coming off ACL surgery make their return in unless it’s just for 5-10 minutes.
The more realistic return date would be December 23rd when Kentucky hosts Bellarmine. That should be a much easier game to let Quaintance get his feet wet in before SEC play begins January 3rd at Alabama.
Ben Roberts of the Lexington Herald-Leader thinks the Bellarmine game could be the target game based on what he’s heard.
One potential timeline that was floated to the Herald-Leader over the weekend featured the possibility of Quaintance making his UK debut against Bellarmine on Dec. 23 in Rupp Arena, the final nonconference game on the Wildcats’ schedule.
It sure would be nice to have JQ for Saturday’s game against a top 25 St. John’s squad, but my guess is we’ll see him make his return next week for an early Christmas present to the BBN.
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Let’s just hope we’re finally about to see Kentucky Basketball have everyone available for game action.
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