The Kentucky men’s basketball team experienced their first game of the season with a full squad earlier this week. The Wildcats fielded a full 16 players for the first time in Tuesday night’s victory over Ole Miss, as fifth-year forward Tre Mitchell made his comeback after missing two games with a back ailment. However, coach John Calipari’s team’s good fortune was short-lived as Mitchell departed the Ole Miss game with a left shoulder injury with 16:13 remaining in the game and did not come back. Mitchell checked himself out on the UK bench, went to the Kentucky locker room, and never came back to the Rupp Arena floor.
In his 21 minutes on the field, Mitchell made an impression: in only the first half, he had five points, five rebounds, and two assists. With a plus-16 first-half plus-minus, he led the Wildcats. Calipari then said that Mitchell had X-rays taken but that there had been no update on his injuries. Mitchell’s injury was severe enough to keep him out of the UK team’s subsequent game, which they won 70-59 against Auburn on Saturday night on the road. Mitchel won’t be available to play against the Tigers, Calipari stated on UK’s pregame radio interview on Saturday. Mitchell was not brought up by Calipari at his postgame news conference.
This marked the third missed game of the season for Mitchell. He previously missed a pair of games with a back injury. Sophomore Adou Thiero started in Mitchell’s place and recorded 14 points and eight rebounds. Thiero made all six of his free throws and had several highlight-reel dunks in the big Kentucky win. Thiero played a career-high 33 minutes in the win.
Mitchell averages 12.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists this season, and he has started all 22 games that he’s played in. “You know, Tre is a warrior. He’s been a warrior for us throughout the season and for a good majority of that time he was playing, he was playing hurt. He was trying to impact the team with his will and you could see his experience, his veteranship,” Orlando Antigua, UK’s associate coach, told reporters earlier this week
“He’s one of our best rebounders out there, aside from being able to (be) steady and calm everyone on the offensive end as well. He’s a big piece that’s been missing, but it also gives an opportunity for some of these other guys to step in and step up. That’s why they’re here. They’re here to be able to take advantage of those opportunities, some guys have done that.” Following Tuesday’s game, Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard also had plenty of praise for Mitchell, who is in his first season with the Wildcats after previous college stops at UMass, Texas and West Virginia. “I think Tre Mitchell is one of the best players in college basketball,” Beard said. “In my opinion, he’s not a stat-sheet guy, but there’s no denying the poise and the composure he gives this young, really talented, team.”
Figuring out rotations and on-court pairings with players constantly shifting in and out with availability issues has been a season-long struggle for Kentucky. Among Kentucky’s regular rotation players, only Jordan Burks, Antonio Reeves and Reed Sheppard have been available for every game this season. Of this trio, only Reeves and Sheppard have appeared in all 25 UK games. Reeves is the only Kentucky player to have started all 25 contests this season. Including Saturday, eight UK players have combined to miss a total of 49 games due to injury, illness or other availability issues this season.
What was it like for the Wildcats to finally be at full strength — if only for 24 minutes — against Ole Miss? “Oh listen, that was amazing,” UK sophomore center Ugonna Onyenso said Tuesday, after setting a Rupp Arena record for blocks by a Kentucky player. “That was amazing. We talked about it before the game. We were so happy that everybody was back playing today. Hopefully, we will stay healthy because we need everybody in March.”
