Matt Jones (6:41)
Do not. I'm telling you, we need to. I don't know what it is. Inject him with whatever shoulder juice you can. That's not the phrase probably to use, but nevertheless, he. He's the key. This team is completely different with him on the floor. With him on the floor, there's ball movement away moves to a secondary score. Shooters now don't have to create their own shot. He can get them the shot. Big men, their defender will have to play off to double, which allows them to get offensive rebounds. He can pass and see the open man. And the offense goes from a muddled mess to a team that looks efficient. And you can see for the first time how the people that sort of created this team in terms of building it, how they envisioned it going. You know, I still wonder if we're one shooter short, but now I at least can see how it can work. And it's all low. You know, Billy, I'm wrong a lot, but I was right about that. Going back to the summer, this team has to have him. You can make some quibbles about should we have a backup point guard, should we have recruited one? That's fair. But he's the guy and he has that it. And he can get to the rim and he can create. But most importantly, he can create his own offense, draw double teams and kick. And I thought in that second half when he checked in, which was about the 16 minute mark or 17 minute mark until the end is. It was a masterclass performance by him. Floaters off the backboard, hit a three pass, calm the offense down. I just loved it. I. I felt like I was sitting there watching. I don't know if he'll be a star star, but watching like a really good Kentucky player develop. Then parallel to that is Jaden Quaint. At one point, he had played 12 minutes and had 10 points and seven rebounds. And you know, sometimes you see a guy and you go, they don't make too many of those. And that's him that there. There are only a handful of those in the world. Athletic can handle the ball Great Defense can rebound, physical. He's a top 10 pick. That's our next NBA player right there. And watching him. No offense to Malachi, no offense to Garrison, no offense to Yellow Vich. That's a different dude. That's a completely different dude. And he hasn't even done some of the stuff like shooting, which, which I think he can do. He's a completely different guy. And the athleticism, you know, St. John's when he was in, especially with Diabate, I mean, they, they, they couldn't get anything at the rim, anything at all. The, the paint was completely shut down. And those two guys together, Low and Quaintance. It's like a different basketball team. Then throw in Cam Williams making threes. Throw in away being. This was the away we had last year, which goes to the point that I kind of made during the summer and early fall, which is always. Can be like, maybe the best second or third option in the country, but he can't be your first option. And now he gets to do that. And he had a quiet 20. And then Diabate, I thought was great, especially in the, you know, down low, doing the gritty stuff. And that lineup, which played a lot of the second half of Low away. Williams with Aberdeen kind of coming in here and there, and then Diabate and Quaintance with Moreno kind of coming in, in there, in that, you know, every few minutes. You know, that's a team that can be special. And some guys are not going to get to play. I mean, I kind of think. Billy, I don't know if we're going to see much. Trent. No, you know, I don't know if we're going to see any yellow bitch. I also think Brandon Garrison is going to be having to fight Moreno for his minutes, because I can tell you that those five guys, they're playing and everything's different now. It's completely different outlook. And you have two weeks here where you play Bellarmine on Tuesday, but then that's it for two weeks. Our next game, besides Bellarmine, that matters is two weeks from today when we go to Alabama and SEC play starts. And I want you to think about how much different this time off is going to be than it would have been if the game had ended at halftime. Literally, the game ends at halftime. We're all sitting there going, all right, well, maybe we invest in women's basketball. Season's over. The season's over. I mean, if the game ends at halftime and Jalen Lowe's out for the year, we're probably like this year's just going to be about let's enjoy the acquaintance moments. Now, though, it's a different thing. You know, I do worry about a couple things, but I. But now it's like nitpicking worries or worries about going from a good team to a potentially great team. But the floor of this team, which looked to be really low, has. As long as you keep low and quaint and selfie, the floor has risen quite a bit, and now the ceiling will have to wait and see. But the most important thing is keep those two guys healthy. And even though I think Jaden Quaints will end up being the best player from this team long term, I want him healthy. He's very important. But we have to keep low healthy. He's irreplaceable. And I don't know, Billy, I don't know how. I don't know how you help shoulders, but I'm willing to invest in shoulder help.
