John Calipari says Isaiah Briscoe uncertain for Albany game

Just when the Kentucky Wildcats appeared to be getting healthy, they may be without a key player when they open their season against Albany Friday night.

Speaking at his pre-Albany press conference Thursday, Cal said that freshman guard Isaiah Briscoe banged knees with Dominique Hawkins in practice this week and is listed as day to day with his status for Friday being uncertain.

"Isaiah bumped knees with Dom, and so he’s got a bruised knee," Calipari said. "(He's) day to day. Don’t know if he’ll go Friday or Saturday."

With the Cats playing in back-to-back games as NJIT comes to town Saturday night, it looks as if that game is up in the air as well for Briscoe, who is expected to be one of the three starting guards for UK this season. If he is unable to go in either game, it's going to be interesting to see who starts in his place.

It would most like be freshman guard Charles Matthews, who's been getting a lot of minutes in the three-guard lineup through two exhibition games. JUCO guard Mychal Mulder also may play more after rarely seeing the floor in the two exhibition games.

This all comes after junior guard Dominique Hawkins just recently started practicing after suffering a broken hand and missed a month of action, though he's expected to play Friday after returning to practice last weekend. It's possible he gets the starting nod since Calipari probably trusts him more, though Matthews has shown a lot of promise.

Either way, it sounds like Briscoe's injury isn't serious and shouldn't miss both games this weekend.