The Kentucky Wildcats beat the Tennessee Volunteers 75-64 during a game at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025.

Barely 24 hours had passed since the words came out of his mouth.

Lamont Butler knew his left shoulder wasn’t 100% back to normal when he returned to the basketball court two days earlier in Kentucky’s win over South Carolina.

Butler knew that injured left shoulder wouldn’t be completely healed by the time he stepped onto the Rupp Arena court the following night to face the fifth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers.

He wanted to play anyway — even knowing he’d probably be playing hurt for the rest of the season — and that knowledge included the possibility that he could suffer a setback again at any moment.

“Just the risk of it getting a bad hit or something like that,” Butler said Monday afternoon of the dangerous circumstances, foreshadowing what was coming next. “But I’m really not thinking about it. I’m just out there playing, and hopefully it doesn’t happen. I’m just out there trying to be the best I can.”

Surely no one had forgotten what Butler could bring to this UK team which lost four of its five games after he suffered that shoulder injury in a win over now-No. 8 Texas A&M on Jan. 14 but if any reminder was necessary, he provided it upon his return.

On Saturday afternoon, he helped the Cats beat South Carolina 80-57, one of the team’s best defensive efforts this season coming on the heels of some poor performances on that end. He said his shoulder felt good enough to go Saturday morning, so he played. Did it feel the same Sunday morning, after logging 23 minutes against the Gamecocks his first action in two weeks?

“No, it did not,” Butler acknowledged with a grin. “It was a little sore, but it’s still feeling good good enough for me to play.”

On Tuesday night, on the very first possession of the game, Butler ripped the ball right out of the hands of Zakai Zeigler, took it the other way for a layup and ended up going to the ground as the first points of the game fell through the net. Butler braced his fall with both arms extended. Big Blue Nation held its breath. He popped back up, a smile on his face as he ran back on defense.

Mark Pope saw the steal, but he didn’t see the layup, which means he probably didn’t see his starting point guard the “heart and soul” of his team, the coach keeps saying fall to the floor less than 20 seconds into the game. Pope’s eyes were on another player, Otega Oweh.

“I thought he was gonna run up in the crowd and body surf, he was so excited about the defensive play,” he said of UK’s leading scorer. “And that sets a good tone for our team.”

A little while later, Butler hit the court again in an attempt to get a loose ball. He got up, just fine.

The 6-foot-2 guard had six points, four assists and three steals when with the Cats clinging to a 54-52 lead and about 8:45 left in the game he put his body on the line one more time.

Chaz Lanier had the ball for the Vols, and Butler knocked it loose with his right hand, setting off a scramble in which he and Lanier both lunged to the court for the prized possession. Butler’s left arm was awkwardly entangled with Lanier’s right arm as he tried to reach for the ball while falling to the floor, and Kentucky’s leader ended up staying on the ground, this time in obvious pain.

The whistle blew, and Pope was immediately out on the court.

“The second he went down, you could kind of see as he extended out that it just torqued his shoulder a little bit, and it was just exactly what we didn’t want to do,” the UK coach said.

Butler was in clear agony at first. He sat up a few moments later a not-this-again look on his face and lightly pounded the court with his right fist a few times before leaving it for good.

Kentucky won the game 75-64 the Cats’ fourth win this season over a team currently ranked in the AP top five — but Butler was lost for the rest of the night, his status thrown back into question.

“He was incredible. And he was brave, too,” Pope said. “I mean, when he’s playing, he’s a one-arm bandit out there, and he’s just working for his team. So we’ll patch work it together. We’ll keep figuring it out.”

The Lamar Butler Effect

When the Wildcats walked onto the Rupp Arena court for their noon tipoff Saturday, they were sitting at No. 108 nationally in defensive efficiency, according to the KenPom ratings. When they woke up Wednesday morning — after two games with Butler back in the lineup they were 82nd in those rankings.

That’s still not great and it’s far short of the UK coaching staff’s expectations but a 26-spot jump in two games, this late in the season, is not normal. And it’s yet another example of what Butler’s mere presence even when not completely healthy brings to this team.

“More than anything, aside from him being a good player, it also changes the dynamic of what some other guys are out there doing on the court,” said South Carolina coach Lamont Paris, who saw film of UK with and without the star guard. “Maybe some guys are in more natural roles. And I think that’s probably the thing that I noticed the most. He’s a competitor. He’s definitely a competitor. He’s started all these games for a reason. He helps them play their best version of basketball, probably on both ends of the court.”

Butler, who started in 100 games including the 2023 national title game during his sophomore, junior and senior seasons at San Diego State is certainly an important offensive player, too. “He’s their best downhill driver,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Tuesday night.

And while that’s a big part of a UK offense that’s now rated No. 3 nationally behind only Auburn and Alabama, the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in this week’s AP Top 25 poll, respectively  it’s Butler’s defense that makes the biggest difference for these Wildcats.

“I love the way he plays. I really do,” said Barnes, who has coached one of the nation’s top five defenses in each of the past five seasons and has the NCAA’s No. 1-rated D this year. “And I hate that he got hurt again, because those shoulders — they’re hard to deal with this time of year, especially when you’re at the point (guard), where you’re getting hit a lot.

“I just hate that for him, and for them. But he’s a difference-maker because he’s tough, hard-nosed and can affect the game on both ends.”

Pope noted that Oweh’s reaction to Butler’s game-opening steal was so strong that it drew the coach’s attention completely away from the play. That type of contagious energy is the norm when Butler is on the court, and everyone associated with this UK basketball team will admit it.

“Offensively, he’s a tremendous player, in terms of just putting pressure on the defense and getting into the paint, kicking out and dropping off to the bigs and everything,” said fifth-year guard Koby Brea. “And defensively, you know, he’s our heart and soul. He’s what every team would want in a player. And we kind of, like, follow him. He kind of sets the tone for us.”

Brea said after the South Carolina game that Butler simply being on the court “takes pressure off a lot of us” and agreed with Paris that his presence allows others in the backcourt to play their natural positions.

“I think he just helps us as a group on both ends, really,” he said. “Because defensively, you know, he’s a monster. And I think that we needed that a little bit — just to have him back out there. Seeing him put his heart and soul into the game, everybody else follows.”

Butler is far from the loudest guy off the court. He’s always been more of a lead-by-example type on it, and — while speaking up more during practices and games has been a point of emphasis this season — he doesn’t have to say much to get others to follow.

His response to a question about why that is earlier this week struck a balance between his natural humility and an acknowledgment of the obvious.

“I mean, I don’t know,” Butler said, seemingly embarrassed by all of the attention on himself. “I just give it my all, especially on the defensive side. I think I have a really unique gift on that side. So me having that energy, I think everyone else just kind of feeds off it. I think it just takes a lot of pressure off them on that end.

“So instead of guarding for maybe 20 seconds in the clock, now they only have to guard for 15 or 10. I think it just helps the team collectively.”

Lamont Butler’s shoulder injury

Kentucky beat Tennessee without Butler two weeks ago and finished off the Vols with him watching from the bench Tuesday night. Both were total team efforts, but it’s clear that the Cats’ long-term fortunes — namely, a deep NCAA Tournament run — will be reliant on his presence on the court.

Jaxson Robinson, the team’s second-leading scorer and de facto point guard while Butler was sidelined, missed his first game Tuesday night after suffering a wrist injury in practice last Friday, and Pope implied he’d be out for at least a little while longer.

Kerr Kriisa hasn’t played since Dec. 7, when he suffered a fractured foot, and Pope said Monday night that he’s not yet practicing and is “a ways away” from returning to the court.

The Wildcats need Butler, but they also need him to be healthy for the postseason.

Getting him back on the court and keeping him there will be a balancing act for Pope and his staff. All involved have all but said that his shoulder injury is not expected to fully heal between now and the end of the season. That means managing the pain from here on out and holding your breath every time he dives to the court or fights through a screen.

It sounds like Butler has been honest with himself and UK’s staff during the entire ordeal. He returned a little quicker than some around the program expected and said Monday that he simply felt like he was ready to give it a go by the time the South Carolina game rolled around.

“The past couple weeks, I just wasn’t really feeling ready to go out there and play,” he said of missing the three previous games.

That decision-making — not trying to rush back when he wasn’t ready — showed a level of maturity and acceptance of the situation. But the way Butler plays — creating chaos defensively and putting his body on the line on both sides of the ball — is going to make staying on the court a day-to-day question mark.

The attempted steal that led to his departure from the game Tuesday night happened right in front of Pope, who called it a “super scary” sight.

“I’m hopeful that he can get back healthy as soon as possible,” the coach said. “We’ll see.”

Kentucky (17-7, 6-5 SEC) has seven regular-season games remaining, starting with a trip to Texas on Saturday night. Still left on the schedule are No. 1 Auburn (March 1 in Rupp) and a rematch with No. 2 Alabama (Feb. 22 in Tuscaloosa), as well as the season finale at No. 21 Missouri on March 8, plus a rematch Wednesday with Vanderbilt, which beat UK last month.

That’s a tough road, and then comes the SEC Tournament in Nashville and an NCAA Tournament that everyone associated with the Wildcats has been building toward for months.

Kentucky will need Butler to be the best version of itself. And Pope knows the “heart and soul” of his Wildcats will be out there whenever he’s ready to go. The UK coach made that clear Tuesday night, as if it wasn’t already.

“There’s nobody that wants to be on this court more than Lamont Butler.”