LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A hush hovered over Kentucky's basketball players Friday, replacing the jovial atmosphere that usually exudes from this group of Wildcats.
They were coming to grips with the loss of one of their leaders for the rest of the season, junior forward Alex Poythress.
Willie Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson reservedly talked about Poythress' devastating knee injury on a routine layup in practice, but the top-ranked Wildcats don't have a lot of time to regroup emotionally as they prepare for today's game with No. 21 North Carolina.
"We definitely have to try to get a win for him and just play hard for him," Johnson said. "I know if he was out there, he would play his hardest."
Poythress, 6-8, 240 pounds, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, the school said Friday. A date for surgery has not been set, but recovery typically takes six to eight months.
Kentucky (10-0) will turn to its depth against the Tar Heels (6-2) to fill the void created by Poythress' injury. He was on the first of the Wildcats' two-platoon system that has been so effective early in the season, winning games by an average margin of nearly 30 points.
Coach John Calipari seemed to take a wait-and-see approach of that strategy as he tried to grasp the sudden loss of a key veteran. Asked if he would stick with the platoons, the coach said he didn't know.
"I didn't spend any time thinking team last night," he said. "We will figure it out."
Calipari said on his website Friday that Poythress was injured on a breakaway layup that didn't involve contact. The injury's freakish nature was what made it so hard for the Wildcats to accept.
"We were just scrimmaging, normal stuff, and he was just going up for a fast-break layup and just fell," Cauley-Stein said. "We thought he was fine. He could bend his leg and he wasn't feeling the typical ACL injury pain, but then they told us after he got the MRI that it was torn."
Poythress started eight games and averaged 5.5 points and 3.8 rebounds in 20 minutes. The muscular forward was shooting just 38 percent but leads the team at the free-throw line, making nearly 86 percent. He is third on the team in blocks and sixth in rebounding.
"He can do things that normal [players] can't," Johnson said.
Pursuing a title was a key motivation for Poythress to return for a third season after last spring's NCAA title-game loss to Connecticut.
Poythress and Cauley-Stein are the most experienced players on a 10-deep roster that features nine Wildcats at least 6-6. They are featured on the front cover of this year's media guide.
This is the third consecutive season Kentucky has lost a starter.
Forward Nerlens Noel tore an ACL in February 2013, an injury that ultimately led to Kentucky missing the NCAA Tournament. Last spring, Cauley-Stein missed the final three games of the run to the NCAA title game with an ankle injury.
Sports on 12/13/2014