Georgia transfer Savhir Wheeler says he will be one of the fastest point guards John Calipari has had. (Georgia Athletics Photo)
Talk about a name-dropper. New Kentucky point guard Sahvir Wheeler, a transfer from Georgia, knows exactly what playing point guard at Kentucky means even if he is not the traditional 6-3 or bigger point guard coach John Calipari likes.
“The average is 6-3, but I feel like I’m the fastest or one of the fastest Coach Cal is going to have. I’m probably up there with (De’Aaron) Fox. It’s pretty ironic because Fox is from Houston (like Wheeler is),” Wheeler said Wednesday during a Zoom conference with UK basketball media.
“But I think the advantages that I’m going to have is similar to Tyler Ulis as far as guarding the ball, being a defensive pest, being disruptive on that end, and offensively using my speed to get into the paint and be a distributor, scoring when I need to, being a playmaker, making the right plays, trying to make everyone else’s life easier so we can win some games down here.”
See he just threw in the names of Fox and Ulis, two very successful point guards for Calipari, on his own.
I asked if that meant he was a student of UK basketball and that made him laugh, something he seems to do a lot.
“Nah, I would like to call myself a student of the game just in general, but any great point guard that comes through college basketball I’ve had a little study session with my dad at some point,” Wheeler said. “But Kentucky specifically, because I always wanted to play in the SEC.
“I feel like this league was built for guards like me to play fast, to be up-tempo, to be productive. They’ve had a lot of guards come through Kentucky, obviously, who were all those things. That’s why I guess I consider myself a Kentucky historian per se a little bit. I’m just super excited to be here.”
If he plays like Fox or Ulis, Kentucky fans will be even more excited. In two seasons at Georgia he proved he could more than hold his own in the SEC and he knew at 5-10 he was going to be compared to Ulis, a comparison he was was “cool” with him.
“Tyler Ulis was the SEC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. So if I’m getting that comparison, I think I’m doing some things right,” he said. “Obviously, I have to continue to get better to live up to that, but I’m super excited.
“He was a successful guard in college. He was super successful here at the University of Kentucky and I’m really cool with that. I’m also cool with being the next, the one and only Sahvir Wheeler as well.”
