Alex Poythress tears his ACL

[UKnation87]

Some bad news out of UK... Poythress tore his ACL in practice last night. I know this team is deep and he's not a world beater in the stat box but, he was a glue guy and an athletic freak of sort. He'll be missed for sure. I'm interested to see how the boys in blue react to this with UNC coming to town.

Get well soon AP!

GO CATS!

 

[dcZONAfan]

Sorry to hear this. I agree his energy will be tough to replace, he is a good defender and is another body you have to try and account for on the offensive boards.

What do you think they platoon system will look like? Lyles moves into the starting lineup? One starter stays on with the other 4 that come in?

 

[dcZONAfan]

Now that I think about it, this is probably the best thing that could have happened for your team in the long run. Cal can completely get away from the platoon and just play his best players. Marcus Lee is not good enough to see serious minutes on this squad. Every minute he plays takes away from someone else who is better. Lyles goes into the starting lineup, Dakari, Ullis, Booker off the bench with spot minutes for Lee. Your team is now better, and that is scary

 

[jonvi]

Wish the young man the best.

 

[UK Cowboy]

Some bad news out of UK... Poythress tore his ACL in practice last night. I know this team is deep and he's not a world beater in the stat box but, he was a glue guy and an athletic freak of sort. He'll be missed for sure. I'm interested to see how the boys in blue react to this with UNC coming to town.

Get well soon AP!

GO CATS!

Poy is a fantastic kid, wish him nothing but the best. His numbers next year will likely go way up when UK loses 5-6 1st rounders. Hopefully this works out fine for him when it's all said and done.
Losing Poy does hurt the Cats on the court, because he is like WCS and Lee in that he is a lockdown defender. It will be interesting to see how this affects the platoon system. I think they will still use it alot, with either Willis or Hawkins playing depending on the opponent. More likely, Lee will start to play a little less, and the Cats will use 8 guys the rest of the way, with the Twins being backed up by Ulis and Booker, and 4 guys playing the 3 front court spots in WCS, KAT, Lyles and Johnson. It has to be pretty scary for other teams to think of three of those big guys playing together at a time instead of two

 

[douggie]

I hate to hear anyone gets injured for the rest of the season. Tough loss. No matter how many superstars UK has it upsets the apple cart regardless. AP is a great player. What is up with all these ACL injuries? This seems to be the most common among all athletics next to turning ankles.

 

[UKnation87]

Not sure how this will change things up... Lyles could move into the starting role and have Willis (who is currently the 12th man) move into the back-up position but I'm not really sure.

We will know something for sure tomorrow. I'm not too concerned about their ability to make up the overall production but as you said, he was an energy guy. If I'm being honest, I really think Derek Willis could put up the same type of numbers with more minutes.

Willis obviously isn't the athlete Poythress is but he can score a number of different ways. I'm more interested in seeing the mindset and attitude of everyone on the court tomorrow. I want to see how they respond.

 

[TrollyMcTroller]

Best wishes to Alex Poythress.

Could be tough to tell the overall impact of him not being in the mix, even after the UNC game.

Looks like Willis didn't get many minutes, but that might just be because he wasn't as prepared for UNC as Calipari wanted him.

I will say, that I disagree to an extent about Marcus Lee. While I don't think he's as good as his "A platoon" counterpart Cauley-Stein, I think he's a pretty good athlete. He's a better shot blocker, and generally a good defender. Much like Cauley-Stein earlier in his career his offensive game needs some polish, but I think he's one of the fey guys that can guard the post or the perimeter nearly as well as Cauley-Stein.

But I wouldn't be shocked either way if Calipari did or didn't stick with the platoon system for a while longer.

 

[tducey]

Bad news for Kentucky and Alex, best wishes to him in his recovery.

 

[Codaxx]

Now that I think about it, this is probably the best thing that could have happened for your team in the long run. Cal can completely get away from the platoon and just play his best players. Marcus Lee is not good enough to see serious minutes on this squad. Every minute he plays takes away from someone else who is better. Lyles goes into the starting lineup, Dakari, Ullis, Booker off the bench with spot minutes for Lee. Your team is now better, and that is scary

It's a bigger deal than people think. He is the best athlete on the team. I question who will guard the 3 spot. I wonder if you will see more 3 guard line-ups now. Harrison is 6-6, so I could see him slidding to the 3. I think Ulis/Booker backcourt is already the best option