Kentucky will be without a key bench player against Kentucky Wesleyan

Kentucky will be short a guard in its first exhibition game vs. Kentucky Wesleyan.

Oct 11, 2024; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Kerr Kriisa (77) fives teammates during Big Blue Madness at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

The Kentucky Wildcats are getting ready to take on Kentucky Wesleyan in the team's first exhibition game of the Mark Pope era. While the Wildcats shouldn't have much trouble in this game Kentucky Wesleyan is a solid D2 program and should be a good test for the Wildcats.

Kentucky will be without backup point guard Kerr Kriisa in this game as he is dealing with a hamstring injury. After the Blue-White Game on Friday, Coach Pope had this to say about Kriisa's injury, “We’re in contract negotiations, and he’s holding out. Nah, I’m kidding. We were doing heavy conditioning this week, and he tweaked his hamstring. It’s not even a strain, just a precaution.”

It feels like the type of injury that, if this was a regular season game, he would be out on the floor. Kriisa went through a pretty extensive pregame warmup and looked game ready.

The feeling is that Kriisa will be ready to go for the first game of the season which is coming up here in a few weeks.

The positive of this is that players like Collin Chandler, Travis Perry, and Trent Noah will get some extra playing time, which will help as they are all incoming freshmen. Kriisa doesn't need this extra playing time as much, knowing he has a ton of college basketball under his belt.

Some younger players are going to be given an opportunity to shine as the Pope era gets started in Rupp Arena. Kentucky's matchup against Kentucky Wesleyan will tip off at 7:00 pm et.