A wildly entertaining 2023-24 Kentucky men’s basketball season has now seen 28 games played to completion.
And the Wildcats have had all of their scholarship players available for a grand total of 24 total minutes, all of which came in a home win over Ole Miss on Feb. 13.
This lack of roster continuity continued with Tuesday night’s buzzer-beating road win at Mississippi State.
Kentucky fifth-year forward Tre Mitchell was out injured for the 91-89 win over the Bulldogs, which marked the fourth straight game that Mitchell has missed for the Wildcats. Mitchell has now missed six of UK’s last seven games.
But, it seems like his time on the sideline could be nearing an end.
Postgame, UK head coach John Calipari indicated that a return for Mitchell could be coming sooner rather than later.
“I think so,” Calipari said when asked if Mitchell was nearing a return. “He’ll practice a couple days and let’s see where he is.”
Kentucky next plays on Saturday afternoon against Arkansas at Rupp Arena.
Mitchell — who has per-game averages of 12.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists this season — has started all 22 games that he’s appeared in for the Wildcats.
“We like our depth, and we like the ability to be able to play different ways,” UK assistant coach Chin Coleman said Monday. “I think obviously having Tre’s experience and all of that stuff, he’s like a traffic cop out there for us: He kind of directs traffic by being a secondary ball handler, we put the ball in his hand, we play through him a lot, we trust him.”
