Kentucky basketball should sit Jayden Quaintance for entire season so he can get healthy

• Coach Mark Pope stated that while Quaintance is recovering quickly, the team is being cautious with his return.
• UK has enough frontcourt depth and enough players to score that it could succeed without Quaintance this season.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — At his best, Kentucky basketball forward Jayden Quaintance has the makings of a dominant force and a future pro career.

The operative phrase being at his best.

Quaintance is far from that now. Most players who had surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in their right knee in March would not be back to full health now, either.

UK coach Mark Pope should consider what Quaintance is not and hold him out for the entire season.

“He feels like he’s on the verge of being ready to go, and we’re just hitting the brakes full time right now to make sure, because his future is going to be incredibly bright in this game,” Pope said Tuesday at SEC Tipoff media days. 

Quaintance had his surgery five days before USC star JuJu Watkins suffered her own ACL injury in a game. Watkins, who is projected to be the next big star in the women’s game, announced last month that she was going to sit out the entire season. 

The timing of Quaintance’s injury and surgery is what makes his status so precarious.

Modern medicine has made it so ACL injuries stopped being career-enders a long time ago. And there have been many successful examples of players with ACL injuries who returned and were productive the next season. But those examples tend to be players who weren’t injured in the same calendar year. 

“I’m not sure exactly how long the wait is,” Pope said. “I don’t think there’s a chance we could keep him from playing this season. I think he’s too excited, too talented, worked too hard to get back. He’s going to be really special.”

Here’s the thing: UK doesn’t need Quaintance to have a special season and pursue the ninth national title that has been so ingrained in its roster. He’s just a piece of the puzzle with a full supporting cast.

Junior Brandon Garrison has had a promising offseason and looks to take on a larger role than last season. Pope called Malachi Moreno an “impactful freshman” who was “unbelievable on the glass” and shooting 80% from the field in practice scrimmages.

“I didn’t know that’s the guy I recruited a year ago,” Pope said. 

Sophomore Andrija Jelavić, despite arriving on campus in August, can also help the Cats fill out their frontcourt in place of Quaintance. 

Even if Quaintance is cleared for full contact and able to play during the Cats’ nonconference portion of their schedule, he’s probably not going to be at his best.

The more likely scenario is that Quaintance plays the will he or won’t he be available type of guessing game that summarized Shaedon Sharpe’s career at UK.

Sitting Quaintance out might risk him never suiting up for the Wildcats. He could follow the Sharpe route and choose to enter next year’s NBA draft. 

That’s OK.

His knee would be closer to full strength, and he could comport himself accordingly on the court. Quaintance can’t do that now, no matter how good he looks dunking the ball, when unchallenged, or going through non-contact drills.

Most players who have suffered ACL injuries have told me in the past that it took an entire year just to feel normal and their second season back from the injury was when they were physically able to perform in the way that they used to do.

Quaintance is apparently clearing hurdles to get back ahead of schedule. 

“He is racing back to health at light speed right now,” Pope said. “It is remarkable what he’s doing; we’re all kind of shaking our heads and feeling like how is this humanly possible?”

Better to marvel at his recovery while anticipating him playing next season than to end up shaking our collective heads in hindsight saying he rushed back too soon.

Sit him out this season.

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.