PJ Washington Injured (UPDATE: Cast Off, PJ Walking, Day to Day Per Cal)

[Joneslab]

I just don't think you go from saying "The doctor gave me great news and I'm in a very good place" one day and then 30 hours later not be out there. Further, you don't fly guys to Wisconsin twice to visit with a foot specialist, cast the player up, tell fans (twice) that the specialist says there's no risk of further injury, show a video on Twitter of the player walking, have the coach react to said video and then have the player sit out for the biggest game of the year.

Of course we don't know how running on it yesterday will affect it. But unless there's a significant change from yesterday to today, PJ Washington not playing tonight would be one of the bigger shocks I'd have ever seen as a UK basketball fan.

[Joneslab]

^ That said, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't start the game without him and see how it goes. I can't imagine Kentucky having an easy time without Washington, but if we did Cal might try to hold off until it's clear he needs to be out there.

Reid Travis's first game back he played 23 minutes. But he was out there in all the critical movements of the game. Houston is obviously much better than Alabama so it could be that the entire game will be critical. In that case you have to make a difficult decision as a coach.

Best-case scenario for Kentucky is that we get out to a lead, play the kind of defense we put on Wofford in the second half, and PJ isn't needed for any more than 20 minutes. But unfortunately I don't think the game's going to go like that.

[Joneslab]

Seth Davis tweeted around 11:30 this morning that he's hearing PJ Washington is doubtful to play.

Could be that he got up this morning and the pain was worse. Or it could be Davis is going off some of the things the media reported from yesterday.

[JFCats22]

If he doesn't play and there wasn't some sort of re-injury, fans will be (rightfully) pissed.

UK and Cal have screwed this up so bad from the beginning if he is not available tonight. And, if he doesn't play and UK were to lose, whoa man, Cal and PJ are going to feel the wrath of the BBN.

[Dwight Schrute]

If he doesn't play and there wasn't some sort of re-injury, fans will be (rightfully) pissed.

UK and Cal have screwed this up so bad from the beginning if he is not available tonight. And, if he doesn't play and UK were to lose, whoa man, Cal and PJ are going to feel the wrath of the BBN.

This is the most asinine thing I've ever read. I had to read it three times just to make sure I was understanding it properly.

[Joneslab]

If he doesn't play and there wasn't some sort of re-injury, fans will be (rightfully) pissed.

UK and Cal have screwed this up so bad from the beginning if he is not available tonight. And, if he doesn't play and UK were to lose, whoa man, Cal and PJ are going to feel the wrath of the BBN.

There's always a lot of wrath to go around with the UK fanbase.

In this case it depends completely on how he feels. If he's just gimped up to the point where he knows he can't go, then fans should stay quiet. (But they won't.)

This isn't the same as the Vanderbilt thing. They went to a specialist clearly to see if there'd be damage down the road. He obviously doesn't have his family in his ear because we'd know that by the way they've spoken about the injury.

So if they try their best to get him back and he just can't play then I don't see what fans should say.

And look, Kentucky fans would be upset regardless of how it was played. If they said nothing and he didn't play that segment of the fanbase would be upset. If they said nothing and he played we got beat they'd be upset. If they said a little like they did and he played just a little fans will be upset. And so on.

There's nothing they could do to satisfy the wrath of certain fans.

Best we can do is take it straight up as what it probably is: if he can't play, that means he's genuinely hurt. Looks to me like they've done everything possible to play him.

The only thing I can see that would justify wrath is if we somehow found out PJ wanted to play, there was no pain, but Cal wouldn't play him for whatever reason. That would be bizarre.

[JFCats22]

This is the most asinine thing I've ever read. I had to read it three times just to make sure I was understanding it properly.

You can't be serious....which part is so asinine? You really think the BBN is reasonable and won't be mad if PJ doesn't play? especially if UK were to lose? You are living in lala land.

[KCKUKFan]

If he can play, he should play.

If he can't, then he shouldn't.

Fans should just accept it. There's nothing we can do about it.

[Dwight Schrute]

My take on this is that if you're inclined to criticize a kid who injured his foot and is in an unknown amount of pain, you should instead shut the hell up and just go somewhere else for a while.

[Dwight Schrute]

You can't be serious....which part is so asinine? You really think the BBN is reasonable and won't be mad if PJ doesn't play? especially if UK were to lose? You are living in lala land.

I was referring to your statement about fans being rightfully pissed. Also your statement about UK and Cal screwing this up is just so mind-bogglingly stupid that I don't know how to respond.

[JFCats22]

There's always a lot of wrath to go around with the UK fanbase.

In this case it depends completely on how he feels. If he's just gimped up to the point where he knows he can't go, then fans should stay quiet. (But they won't.)

This isn't the same as the Vanderbilt thing. They went to a specialist clearly to see if there'd be damage down the road. He obviously doesn't have his family in his ear because we'd know that by the way they've spoken about the injury.

So if they try their best to get him back and he just can't play then I don't see what fans should say.

And look, Kentucky fans would be upset regardless of how it was played. If they said nothing and he didn't play that segment of the fanbase would be upset. If they said nothing and he played we got beat they'd be upset. If they said a little like they did and he played just a little fans will be upset. And so on.

There's nothing they could do to satisfy the wrath of certain fans.

Best we can do is take it straight up as what it probably is: if he can't play, that means he's genuinely hurt. Looks to me like they've done everything possible to play him.

The only thing I can see that would justify wrath is if we somehow found out PJ wanted to play, there was no pain, but Cal wouldn't play him for whatever reason. That would be bizarre.

I’m not saying it would be right thing to do. I’m just saying it’s going to happen if it played out like that

[KCKUKFan]

My take on this is that if you're inclined to criticize a kid who injured his foot and is in an unknown amount of pain, you should instead shut the hell up and just go somewhere else for a while.

This.

[KCKUKFan]

I’m not saying it would be right or justified. I’m just saying it’s going to happen if it played out like that

And you'll be right there in the lead, striking up the band, I'm sure.

[Joneslab]

You can't be serious....which part is so asinine? You really think the BBN is reasonable and won't be mad if PJ doesn't play? especially if UK were to lose? You are living in lala land.

If it's not PJ it'll be the refs. If not the refs then one-and-dones. If not one-and-dones then "CAL NEEDS A BENCH COACH!!" If not that then the weather.

It'll definitely be something. The wrath comes out either way.

When it comes to injuries it isn't a good look to criticize players behind a keyboard. We don't know everything that's gone on in this situation.

UK fans are bad about lumping all the injuries into one box, but I actually don't see any similarities with the way this has been played and Vanderbilt. This has all looked like a genuine attempt to get a player ready. If it fails then that probably means they feel like he can't play at the level where he would do anything other than hurt us.

[JFCats22]

And you'll be right there in the lead, striking up the band, I'm sure.

Nope. I’m not going to criticize PJ.

but, I will be pissed at Cal and UK. IMO, they handled this thing wrong from the beginning.

Cal has had a horrible track record when it come to injury updates. Travis was 7-10 days.

Last week PJ was fine, no damage, just some pain and was expected to play last weekend. then he didn’t.

This week Cal tweets out “uh oh” to PJ’s video and UK says, “no statement needed, see PJ’s video.”

you dont do that crap unless you know he’s going to play.