The new floor leader of Kentucky basketball oozes confidence as preseason practice begins

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Sitting in the Joe Craft Center just days before the first official practice of the Kentucky basketball preseason, Jaland Lowe was practically glowing with anticipation.

“Oh, we’re super excited,” said UK’s presumed starting point guard for the 2025-26 season, a wide grin on his face. “We know that it’s getting really real at this point — that the season is right around the corner. And, yeah, the guys are excited. We can’t wait for Big Blue Madness, then our scrimmages. And then after the scrimmages, it’s on.

“Just the talks that we’ve been having in the locker room, we’re ready to get there.”

This week marks another milestone in this Kentucky team’s journey together.

The new group of Wildcats arrived in Lexington in June and spent eight weeks on the practice floor over the summer. They returned to campus from a brief summer break in late August, and they’ve been taking part in more workouts since then.

Along the way, there have been bonding opportunities off the court and additional player-led sessions in the gym. But, as Lowe said, it gets real this week.

With Monday bringing the first formal practice of the fall session, Tuesday marking the six-week countdown to the first real game of the 2025-26 campaign and Saturday signifying only two weeks until Big Blue Madness, the UK basketball season is truly almost here.

Lowe is one of 10 new players on this Kentucky team, which is expected to land in the top-10ish range when the first Associated Press rankings come out next month. These Cats appear to have legitimate national title aspirations.

In an interview with the Herald-Leader late last week, Lowe did nothing to temper those lofty expectations. The 6-foot-1 junior transferred to Kentucky after two seasons at Pitt, and coach Mark Pope — as well as several of his new teammates — have already all but declared him the team’s starting point guard.

That makes him the de facto leader of this UK team on the court, too, and the chatter out of summer practice — including public comments from Pope himself — indicated that he quickly accepted that role.

Lowe is also a willing talker, and that — coupled with his status as the team’s top point guard — should make him something of an unofficial spokesman for the Wildcats this season.

What excites him most about the start of fall practice?

“Just the talent and the will that our guys have,” Lowe said. “People know we have a whole bunch of guys that can really play at a high level, and I know that it’s a bunch of guys who want to win. And when you’re on that wavelength, you don’t really find that a lot in college basketball. A lot of guys have personal agendas and vendettas that they want to accomplish, but when you have a whole team that’s dedicated to winning, it just makes you feel a lot more confident.

“It makes coming to work every day a little bit more fun. So that’s been the best part I’ve been looking forward to.”

Lowe was a third-team All-ACC selection as a sophomore at Pitt last season, burdened with a heavy load after the Panthers lost some key players off the previous year’s team. He averaged 16.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game, but he was asked to do a lot. Too much, at times. He averaged 35.5 minutes and 14.3 shot attempts and hit just 26.6% from 3-point range.

Part of the reason he picked Kentucky out of the transfer portal? A chance to prove himself as an NBA-caliber point guard with a wealth of talent around him. Lowe knew when he committed that Pope would assemble a formidable roster. He still didn’t foresee the final product.

“I had no clue that you could even put a team together that good,” he said, “so it definitely surprised me. And the best teams have multiple players at each position that can really go, and you see any team in past years that won a championship — they had great depth. So I think we’ve got a great team for that.”

Lowe’s UK basketball update

What did Kentucky’s point guard see over the summer that could use some improvement?

“I think maybe everybody just having the same level of confidence,” Lowe said. “You know, with new people on a new team in the summertime, it’s like, ‘Well, can I take this shot?’ Or, ‘What will my teammates think of me if I do something I’ve done at my other school that they may not have seen here?’

“We joke about it all the time: We all watch each other’s highlights, so it’s like, ‘Yo, that’s what he brought us here for. He’s telling you to go do it on the court, bro. We’re gonna be excited to see it, too.’ So I think that’s really grown, and it’s really shown these last couple of weeks. But just everybody having the same confidence in each other is beautiful out there. Just everybody playing their game.”

Lowe wants to see more of that in these fall practices. He already knows this team has the talent and numbers to compete for a national title.

The Texas native said he’s spent quite a bit of time on and off the court this summer with Otega Oweh, the leading scorer on Pope’s first UK team and potentially the preseason SEC player of the year. The new point guard forming an early bond with the Cats’ top returnee is something that will surely put a smile on Pope’s face.

Those two will be joined in the backcourt by senior guard Denzel Aberdeen — a possible third starter on the perimeter — plus high-upside underclassmen Collin Chandler and Jasper Johnson.

Tulane transfer Kam Williams and returning sophomore Trent Noah — by most accounts, the two best 3-point shooters on the team — are in the wing group, which is perhaps the most logical label for positionless freshman Braydon Hawthorne.

And the frontcourt consists of versatile 6-7 forward Mouhamed Dioubate with a whole lot more size beyond that: Jayden Quaintance (6-10, 255 pounds), Brandon Garrison (6-10, 245 pounds), Andrija Jelavic (6-11, 225 pounds), Malachi Moreno (7-0, 250 pounds) and Reece Potter (7-1, 230 pounds).

That’s 14 players, for anyone who lost count, and Lowe said they can all play at a high level.

Some came into the first week of practice with mystery surrounding them.

Oweh is obviously well known to UK fans, but he finished the summer session in a walking boot. That injury — turf toe, he confirmed recently — still has Oweh in a limited role, but there is no internal concern that it will have any impact on his status for the actual games.

Quaintance — a projected NBA lottery pick — is still recovering from March surgery to repair a torn ACL, and he’s back on the court in a non-contact capacity at the moment. It’s unlikely he’ll be ready for the Nov. 4 season opener. His UK debut might not even come until December or January.

Lowe said it’s been clear to teammates how much Quaintance wants to be with them on the court. The 18-year-old apparently hasn’t been shy about raising expectations for himself in the presence of others, and Lowe had an eyebrow-raising comment regarding his talent level.

“We’re going to be the best team in the country, without a doubt, with him coming back,” he said. “He’s somebody that’s just a game changer, in every aspect.”

UK was another man down for those summer practices. Jelavic, a native of Croatia who played for a professional team in Serbia last season, didn’t arrive in Lexington until late August, missing the entire eight-week session during the offseason.

Lowe played up the expectations around Jelavic, too, talking about his “amazing feel” for the game after spending just a couple of weeks with him in the gym.

“He’s already caught up with everything,” Lowe said. “He knows all the concepts. He understands it. Whenever he has a question, he’s not afraid to ask. We rarely have to tell him things twice.”

Six weeks might sound like a lot of time to prepare, but there will be plenty of other milestones between now and the season opener against Nicholls on Nov. 4 in Rupp Arena.

The Cats are expected to hold another Pro Day for NBA scouts early next month, with Big Blue Madness set for Oct. 11 in Rupp and the Blue-White Game scheduled for Oct. 17 in Memorial Coliseum. After that, exhibition games in Rupp against the Purdue Boilermakers, who might end up as the No. 1 team in the preseason AP rankings, on Oct. 24 and the Georgetown Hoyas on Oct. 30.

Part of Lowe’s job over that stretch will be getting all of that talent on the same page. He said these next six weeks will be integral in continuing to build that collective trust and comfort level with each other’s games.

“So that everybody just knows what they’re doing. And I feel like, with the way that we play and the way that these coaches coach, we’ll all be on the same page. And once we are all on the same page, it’ll look very good out there.”