Kentucky coach Mark Pope has a bit of a dilemma heading into the matchup between his No. 4 Wildcats and Ohio State on Saturday as part of the CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York.
As much as he would like to give guard Lamont Butler more time to recover from an ankle injury, especially with the next game not until Dec. 31, Pope likes what he saw out of the San Diego State transfer against Louisville last Saturday in his return from missing two games.
Butler scored a career-high 33 points and added six assists in a 93-85 victory for the Wildcats (10-1).
“LaMont’s ankle is an interesting thing because part of me is, ‘I want to get it 100 percent healthy’ ” Pope said Wednesday. “Then there’s a part of me that’s, ‘I don’t know if I want to get him 100 percent healthy.’ He was pretty good in that Louisville game.
“I think he’s over it. I think we’ve moved on, hopefully, with that.”
Butler went 10-for-10 from the field, including 6-for-6 from 3-point range. Only two players in program history — Rodney Dent in 1993 and Kenny Walker in 1986 — have made more shots without a miss.
“He did an unbelievable job taking what the defense was affording him,” Pope said.
Ohio State (7-4) also got an epic effort when forward Devin Royal set career highs in points (31) and rebounds (15) in a 95-73 win over Valparaiso on Tuesday.
He was the first Ohio State player with a 30-point, 15-rebound double-double since Jared Sullinger had 30 points and 19 rebounds in a win over South Carolina on Dec. 18, 2010.
“I think my teammates got me open,” Royal said. “They were focusing on our guards a lot. That gave me an opportunity to score more.
“I’ve just kept working and stayed in the gym. My teammates have pushed me to be better and better every day. My coaches tell me to go out there and play my game.”
Royal will need to be at his best for the short-handed Buckeyes, who announced before the Valparaiso game that starting guard Meechie Johnson Jr. left the team to attend to personal matters, with no timetable for his return. He is averaging 9.1 points and 2.5 rebounds a game.
Guard Ques Glover and forward Colin White have ankle injuries and missed their eighth and fifth consecutive games, respectively, on Tuesday and may not be available Saturday.
Also, forward Aaron Bradshaw, who transferred from Kentucky after one season, is likely to sit out his eighth straight game. He was allowed to return to team activities last week after an investigation into an alleged domestic incident at his off-campus apartment, but coach Ohio State coach Jake Diebler said Bradshaw is not physically at a level needed to return.
“He wasn’t ready to go (Tuesday),” the coach said. “This is kind of an ongoing evaluation. … Really one day at a time.”
Pope said the Buckeyes are a “formidable opponent” despite lopsided losses of 83-59 to Maryland on Dec. 4 and 91-53 to No. 2 Auburn last Saturday.
“They’ve had some great success and then a couple of games I think they’d like to take back — like all of us, right?” Pope said. “A really, really good challenge against a team that is going to continue to get better and better. It’s going to be an epic clash in Madison Square Garden for Christmas. I mean, it’s what you live for.”
–Field Level Media
