Mo Dioubate wants Jaland Lowe, Jayden Quaintance to play more

Mark Pope's Kentucky basketball team took the floor against St. John's on Dec. 20 fully healthy for the first time. That includes star big man Jayden Quaintance, who made his debut that day for the Wildcats. Most importantly, the entire team was available, which means Jaland Lowe, Mo Dioubate, and Jayden Quaintance, who all three have missed time for Kentucky this season, were all finally on the court together.

As for Dioubate, he missed the least time out of three, with Lowe playing in a game for the first time since Nov. 11 against Gonzaga, although he was limited before then playing more minutes against Indiana, and Quaintance obviously making his debut in Atlanta against Rick Pitino's squad. Kentucky fans have realized how valuable staying healthy is. In the second halves of the Indiana and St. John's games, Lowe was the difference-maker once he returned from re-aggravating his shoulder, and Quaintance was an added major spark plug in Atlanta. Both of them, but Lowe especially, are keys to this Kentucky team's success. Lowe is the engine, while Quaintance's star potential raises their ceiling. It's obvious at this point.

Teammate Mo Dioubate knows that, and he was asked on Tuesday about how he feels about the starting lineup with all of the pushback Mark Pope specifically has gotten about not starting Jaland Lowe and Mo Dioubate, but especially Lowe given that he has already knocked off the injury rust and hasn't missed nine months like Quaintance has. Kentucky's point guard hasn't been in the starting lineup in any game he has played for the Wildcats. Dioubate wants his point guard to be on the floor with him more. Here was his thoughts on if he thinks the starting lineup really does matter:

"I think players, as long as they’re on the court when they feel like they need to be, when the game is on the line, if they’re able to play enough to where they can impact the game, they wouldn’t care as much. But a guy likeJaland, he's our best point guard, so I'd love to see him out there on the court with me. JQ, he's still finding himself a little bit. He had been out for nine months. Still finding his confidence a little bit, still finding his way through the offense. But, I think he's figuring it out. He's gonna figure it out.I feel like If we allow those guys to play a little more and stuff, it's gonna build the momentum of the team. It's gonna look like what people have been imagining."

That quote is pretty telling, because it's not like Lowe is limited with minutes, or even production in that matter. Lowe finished as Kentucky's second-leading scorer against Alabama with 21 points in 27 minutes off the bench, which tied for the second-most time on the floor for the Wildcats in Tuscaloosa. All of that just to come off the bench just over four minutes into the game with the team already down 9-5. Pretty odd, right? Mark Pope on his radio show Monday night on Lowe said, "starting is in his future" as they continue to 'nurse' him back to full strength. The three are a part of what is by far Kentucky's most efficient lineup.

🚨 CLARIFICATION & LINEUP INFORMATION — VERY INTERESTING 🚨

EVERY UK BASKETBALL SHOULD READ 😼

Shoutout to @EvanMiya for his help.

I want to clear something up from a tweet I sent earlier this week.

I was right that the lineup of Otega Oweh, Jaland Lowe, Kam Williams,… pic.twitter.com/LXkfmRWa3y
— Dylan Ballard (@DylanBallard_UK) January 6, 2026

The bottom line is Dioubate wants to play with his two difference-making teammates, because he knows just how much the three can do on the floor together. The three were rarely in the game at the same time against Alabama, not even in together during the first half at all, and in the second half, once one came in, one of other other two went out soon after, so there was no continuity with it, which is all pretty weird. Either way, Kentucky needs Jaland Lowe to start soon to try and combat these early-game deficits.

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