The Wildcats will be back in action after more than a week’s rest and resume their season with an SEC opener against Alabama, in a game where they will hope to take their consecutive win streak to five. The contest won’t be easy by any means, and as such, would need Mark Pope to assemble his best side together. But will that be possible with two of his most dependable players (Jaland Lowe and Jayden Quaintance), who missed out this season nursing injuries?

“They’re doing incredible, we just had three practices in 36 hours, and JQ was in every single moment of the live play went full yesterday, JLO was in all the things we wanted him to be in, and then he was doing some extra conditioning on the side, both those guys are doing great,” came coach Pope that tells us that we will witness the destructive duo light up the Coleman Coliseum.

While Lowe found himself grappling with a recurring shoulder injury, Quaintance found himself recuperating from a torn ACL and torn meniscus, resulting from a fractured knee, which happened last February, and then he underwent surgery in March, which meant a long nine months of rehab for the Cleveland native.

Keeping in mind the severity of the injury and the likelihood of it becoming a hindrance to his potential future career in the NBA, the staff and coaches chose to ease him into the recovery process. So far, JQ has merely appeared in two games for the Wildcats, and those were the last two games against St John’s and Bellarmine, putting together a decent average – 7.0 points, 5,0 rebounds, 66.7 FG%.

Lowe has had significantly more games this season, but still hasn’t been used as much as Mark Pope would have liked for the sake of not aggravating his injury any further. We are all well aware by now as to what Lowe can do when he is on full blast, and last season is the perfect example of that – 16.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 37.6 FG%.

Pope mentioned how they both look in great rhythm, and as that continues slowly, their responsibilities will increase too.

So it’s imperative for the UK that these players, even if not at their very best, deliver for their team to a certain extent cause Alabama too ain’t slacking, more so with Labaron Philon Jr in their ranks, and even Kentucky Mark Pope knows the threats he brings for his team.

Labaron Philon Jr could potentially cause problems for the Wildcats in Tuscaloosa

“Well, he’s really hard to contain; he’s so great off the bounce. And I’ll tell you the thing that I don’t think he gets enough credit for, maybe he does but he is an elite, elite, elite level playmaker off the bounce man. A passer finding guys. He’s got a real skill of threading the needle when he needs to get balls where he does. He’s unbelievable, hitting the short roll and kind of push screen rolls.

“He’s got an unbelievable first, second, and third step. He’s a multiple move guy, he finishes well around the rim, his shooting at an elite level. He’s a big-time player. He’s putting together a great season,” went on coach Mark Pope, giving Labaron all the commendations.

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Philon truly has been a standout for the Crimson Tide this season, and his transition from a freshman to a sophomore clearly demonstrates that. Right from 10.6 points in his first year to 21.9 points now, his improvement journey can be an interesting case study for any future college basketball hopeful.

Be it running into the paint and fooling the defense with his fakes, finding his teammates with the perfect ball while they are marked heavily with players, or simply sinking it from the outside of the perimeter effortlessly. Alabama’s opening game against North Dakota also comes to mind, where he bullied the defense, to which they seemed to find no answer.

So the game will be as tough as it gets when these two conference heavyweights meet. Just don’t blink cause you might miss something.