It was already known that Kentucky men’s basketball will be without its second-leading scorer for the rest of the 2024-25 season. The college basketball career of UK fifth-year guard Jaxson Robinson came to an end during Kentucky’s road win at Oklahoma on Feb. 26, when Robinson reaggravated a right wrist injury that was first suffered in practice on Feb. 7.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope announced that Robinson would be done for the season on Saturday afternoon, following Kentucky’s home loss to No. 1 Auburn. As part of that announcement during his post-Auburn press conference, Pope said Robinson would have surgery on his right wrist, which is Robinson’s shooting wrist, on Wednesday. Robinson was scheduled to fly to New York for that surgery, which Pope said would be done by “the world’s No. 1 surgeon doing this particular procedure.” During his weekly press conference Thursday afternoon, Pope confirmed that Robinson had wrist surgery on Wednesday. “The surgery was perfect,” Pope said of Robinson’s procedure. “I talked to him last night. He was a little tired and a little irritable. But he’s on his way back (to Kentucky) right now.”
Pope added that it remains to be seen if Robinson will be able to travel with No. 19 Kentucky for the team’s regular season finale on Saturday afternoon at No. 15 Missouri. “We’ll see how he feels when he gets back, so if he feels up to it,” Pope said of Robinson’s process of rejoining the team. “I know he’s going to want to be with the team every second he can, and we want him to be.” Robinson — who played and started in 24 games for the Wildcats this season — is expected to be on a three-month recovery timeline. Obviously this means Robinson, who averaged 13 points per game this season, is done playing college basketball. That timeline also means Robinson will miss the NBA Draft Combine, which is scheduled for May 11-18. In a recent NBA draft big board released by ESPN, Robinson was listed as the No. 84 overall player. The Athletic listed Robinson as the No. 99 overall player in its recent NBA draft big board.
