Mark Pope provides another update on Jayden Quaintance's debut timeline

Last game out against Indiana, the Wildcats were as healthy as they've been since the Louisville game, welcoming Mo Dioubate back from an ankle injury that sidelined him for nearly a month, and Jaland Lowe finally seemed to be back to normal after playing the last two games in a limited role as he works his way back from re-injuring his shoulder and missing five-straight games. Now, it's all down to Jayden Quaintance, whose debut has been one of the most highly-anticipated ones that we've seen in a long time at Kentucky.

It's been a long road, as Quaintance has been recovering from his ACL injury since having surgery in March. Now, over half a year later, and it looks like we're simply a matter of days, or even a week at this point. Last week, on Thursday, Mark Pope provided an update on the projected top 10 NBA Draft pick's timeline, saying, "We're at the stages where he's not a full practice guy yet, but he's he's inching his way closer and closer to it. ...we're hoping that we're now into the like days and weeks more than we are the months." He then added that they had very limited live-action reps in practice. This week was a different tone.

Monday night on his radio show, Mark Pope provided yet another update on Quaintance's return timeline. Here's what he had to say: "He's getting closer. We mostly had a long, long practice today, but it was mostly, in terms of live play, was in the half court, so he's engaged in most of that, flying around. And tomorrow, we'll actually cross half court with a bunch of live stuff, and it'll be his first time doing that. ...This is not a recovery from a being out for three weeks with an ankle. This is being out for nine months with a really, really serious injury. he puts so much more stress on his joints just because of how explosive he is, and so we'll continue to proceed with the utmost caution, but we're getting close. I said this a couple days ago, but we're down to days and hours and maybe a week or so. That's pretty exciting. I know he's excited. I think the guys on the team are excited. It's fun to have him on the practice floor for right now."

That tone was just a little different than what he had to say a few days ago, saying "week" instead of "weeks." That's very positive news, and for Kentucky fans, it's starting to sound like you will see Quaintance as soon as St. John's on Saturday or Bellarmine the Tuesday after, because after that, the Wildcats have 11 days off before their next game, which is the start of SEC play at Alabama.

It certainly sounds we should see Quaintance out on the floor, in some capacity, within the next week, as Pope alluded to with his most recent comments.