The general expectation around Lexington has been that Jayden Quaintance would not play another game for the Wildcats or in college basketball before departing for the NBA. The sophomore forward played just four games this season after suffering a knee injury last year at Arizona State that has lingered to the point that Mark Pope said in January that Quaintance was in “full shutdown in terms of his on-court work.”
However, on Monday, Jack Pilgrim of KSR+ reported that Quaintance is working to return for the postseason and may hit the practice court soon. That unexpected development appears to be good news for the injury-riddled Wildcats, but it puts Pope in a near-impossible situation to end a trying Year 2 of his tenure at Kentucky.
Jayden Quaintance is ‘working toward a return’ but should Pope risk integrating him?
Kentucky is not exactly overflowing with front-court depth. However, the rotation of Malchi Moreno, Andrija Jelavic, and Mouhamed Dioubate with Brandon Garrison and a touch of Trent Noah sprinkled in has helped Kentucky to right the ship to beat South Carolina and Vanderbilt back-to-back after a three-game losing streak in SEC play.
Those winning ways likely won’t continue indefinitely with a trip to Texas A&M on deck Tuesday and No. 5 Florida awaiting on Saturday to close out the regular season. Still, it’s late in the year to attempt to integrate a player like Quaintance, who didn’t exactly dominate when he was on the floor this year…