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Late Thursday night, news broke that Alex Poythress, a starting forward for the top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats, tore his ACL and will miss the rest of the season.
Many times when something like this happens, it dismantles a team. To see one of its leaders be lost for the season can be too much for a team to overcome. In addition, this Kentucky team is young, and young people are sometimes very emotional. What kind of toll will a loss like this take on a team?
If the team’s answers on social media are any indication, it appears that the Kentucky players are going to use the injury to Poythress as a rallying point rather than the point where the season came crashing down. Numerous players posted positive messages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram saying how much they cared about Poythress and wishing him the best.
Freshman Karl-Anthony Towns even changed his Twitter profile name to “My Brother’s Keeper”, indicating that he would be there for Poythress and would use this injury to motivate himself for the season.
Head coach John Calipari does have the luxury of having eight other McDonald’s All-Americans on this team. It will be interesting to see if Calipari sticks with his platoon system by inserting another player (Derek Willis or Dominque Hawkins) into Poythress’ spot. Or if Calipari adjusts the platoons and moves Trey Lyles from the second platoon to the first. Or, if he abandons the platoon system altogether in favor of a more traditional substitution pattern.
Kentucky will use the Poythress injury in a positive way, by playing for him the rest of the season. Their first test without him comes on Saturday against the North Carolina Tar Heels. That game should show the world whether this will propel the team or hold them back.
Tim Letcher is a contributing writer for www.RantSports.com and a member of the Football Writers Association of America and the United States Basketball Writers Association. Follow him on Twitter @TimLetcher , on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
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