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Matt Norlander and I just taped a (super-long) #MailbagEpisode of the Eye on College Basketball Podcast that will publish Friday. Among other things, we were asked what storylines we’re most interested in following as this season progresses.
One of my answers: Kentucky.
The Wildcats beat Bellarmine 99-85 Tuesday to extend their winning streak to four games, improve to 9-4 on the season and remain No. 21 in Wednesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Michigan is No. 1 for the 15th consecutive day. That’s the good. But the bad, or at least the concerning, is that just three days after starring in the second half of UK’s 78-66 win over St. John’s in the CBS Sports Classic, Jaland Lowe, the team’s best point guard, was once again sidelined by a shoulder injury that dates to the preseason and has now resulted in the transfer from Pitt missing seven of Kentucky’s first 13 contests.
According to coach Mark Pope, the move was precautionary more than anything else — and Pope added that he expects Lowe to “play every game” moving forward, starting with the SEC opener at Alabama on Jan. 3. But the truth is that nobody can, with any degree of certainty, predict how Lowe’s season will unfold. Remember, he tried to play in the first half against UNC, entered the game a few minutes after tip-off but then exited abruptly after reaggravating it just seven seconds later.
Lowe missed the rest of the half.
At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, how Lowe’s shoulder holds up really could be the difference between the Wildcats making the 2026 Final Four or them struggling through parts of the SEC schedule. So, yeah, that’ll be one of the biggest storylines to follow as the calendar flips to January — whether UK can find a groove with Lowe consistently running things, or if he’s in and out of the lineup too much to matter.
