One of the biggest storylines of Kentucky’s early season isn’t happening on the court, it’s happening in the training room, where Jayden Quaintance continues to push through his recovery at a rapid pace. After tearing his ACL last year Quaintance was scheduled to be ready between January and February. But that may be overshooting the mark a little.
“Man, he’s unbelievable,” Mark Pope said. “He’s he’s he’s been in like increasingly ahead of schedule.”
Pope revealed that JQ has been cleared for controlled five-on-five work, non-contact running, and transition-pattern drills.
“He’s now uh jumping in on some five on stuff with us on the floor. He’s just been cleared to do that,” Pope said. “And so he's uh racing up and down the floor a little bit doing stuff with no contact and he's on his way.”
The staff even measured his symmetry metrics, the data programs rely on to determine if an athlete is ready, and the numbers came back nearly perfect.
“Right now he's you know his asymmetry is almost negligible. It's pretty incredible.” That just means there is no difference in strength between his injured leg and his non-injured leg. It is a good indicator if he could, or should, come back to the court.
The final hurdle before Quaintance sees court time
There’s just one thing left.
“We have one more really, really important um strength test that'll come up here in I think 3 weeks,” Pope added. If JQ passes that test, his timeline accelerates significantly. Based on everything Pope shared, Kentucky might be getting a major piece back sooner than anyone expected.
His interior defense will change how Kentucky will be able to defend teams in a totally different way without worrying about giving up layups. With all the injuries Kentucky has faced in the last two years, it is nice to get a little good news.
Drew Holbrook is an avid Kentucky fan who has been covering the Cats for over 10 years. In his free time he enjoys downtime with his family and Premier League soccer. You can find him on X here. Micah 7:7. #UptheAlbion