WILDCATS

Cats support Poythress with #RoarFor22 shirts

Jonathan Lintner

@JonathanLintner

UK players wore blue shirts and students white ones Saturday at Rupp Arena reading "Roar for 22" in honor of Alex Poythress.

University of Kentucky players publicly rallied around injured teammate Alex Poythress before Saturday's tipoff against North Carolina, wearing shirts that read "Roar for 22" -- Poythress' number -- while UK's students will wear a white version.

The Cats and UNC tip off on CBS at noon, when it's unknown how coach John Calipari will handle his star forward's absence from UK's platoon system.

Additionally, in many of their tweets, the UK basketball account (@KentuckyMBB), Calipari's website (@CoachCalDotCom) and a number of fans are using the #RoarFor22 hashtag.

By 8:30 a.m., #Roarfor22 was trending in Louisville, as was the word "setback" Poythress used in his only tweet since learning of his torn ACL in a practice this week.

"Minor setback for a major comeback," Poythress wrote Friday. "God always has a plan."

Calipari said Friday that at that point, he didn't know if Poythress would be able to attend the UNC game. If the junior could make it, UK quarterback Patrick Towles expressed an idea on Twitter: "#PoythressshouldbetheY"