John Calipari Provides An Update On Terrence Clarke
(Credit: Lexington Herald Leader)
After Kentucky's loss at Missouri, John Calipari provided an update in the postgame press conference on the Terrence Clarke situation and where he's at in the process.
Terrence Clarke did not travel to Missouri yesterday with the team, and instead, stayed back in Lexington with Assistant Head Coach Joel Justus to workout and prepare for Kentuckys game against Tennessee this weekend. Noted, Terrence Clarke has traveled with the team to all of their away games the entire season despite being injured, so for him to not come to this one was kind of confusing. Clarke has been out since his last appearance on December 26th against Louisville, due to his injury, so it does seem weird to me that it's taking this long to rehab what was made out to be a light tweak on his ankle.
John Calipari announced Wednesday evening that if Terrence Clarke can manage through practice tomorrow without limping through it, he believes he can get some minutes against the Volunteers this weekend. It's hard to see someone who limps all week in practice, return to active a few days later, but it's what Cal said so we'll see.
An interesting quote also came out, which caught my eye as a passive-aggressive 'call out' on Terrence which Cal never does to any of his players, but wether you think it was or wasn't, take this how you want to. (Below)
The full quote was:
"If Terrence can practice tomorrow without limping, that's been five weeks. If he can practice without limping tomorrow and Friday, then we may play him Saturday. If he's limping, I don't see how he's going to play. After five weeks, you're still limping? And there's nothing wrong - there's no MRI, there's nothing there."
"But players know their pain, and what their pain threshold is. So if he's limping around, I'm not going to play him. If he's able to play? Shoot, maybe we got another player this weekend."
In my opinion, there really isn't much reason to return this season if you're Terrence Clarke as this season has gone to scraps, and plus you'd be returning from an injury that you won't gain ANYTHING by coming back except risking hurting it again throughout the rest of this season. Clarke has made it clear that this will be his only year in Lexington no matter what after saying this past summer that he planned on being a one-and-done, so if we don't see him this weekend I don't expect him to ever lace up in a Kentucky jersey again. And I think that's what Cal was hinting at in his slight jab at Clarke.