Sahvir Wheeler (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky coach John Calipari said Thursday that he stopped practice Wednesday because point guard Sahvir Wheeler — the same player Notre dame dared to shoot from the outside and did not hit a shot — was making shot after shot.
He wanted to see what his team would say to Wheeler.
“Do that (stuff) in a game!” Calipari said Wheeler’s teammates told him.
He is just 1-for-13 from 3-point range in the last seven games and 4-for-18 this season, a 22.2 percent mark that is even lower than what he shot at Georgia last year before transferring to Kentucky and promising he was a better shooter than his numbers indicated.
“It kind of messes with your head a little bit. I can kind of see it in his face a little bit,” freshman TyTy Washington said about Notre Dame not guarding Wheeler. “It just seems like he was not, like, mentally in it. After the game, you could just see it in him. He felt he let the team down.”
Calipari wants Wheeler to use teams backing off him as motivation.
“Use it as fuel. You can’t come down and shoot every ball now. But you’re going to say, you’re playing me!” the UK coach said. “I have all the faith in the world in him.
“At the end of the day, he should be one of the best point guards in the country. The numbers indicate it.”
He is averaging 7.7 assists per game, second in Division 1.
Kentucky was scheduled to play Ohio State in Las Vegas Saturday before the game was cancelled because of COVID issues at Ohio State. However, Ohio State coach Chris Holtman, a Kentucky native, suggested the Buckeyes knew UK would have Wheeler ready to go before he knew the game was off.
“The one thing you know about that (is) you have a week off,” Holtman said. “So, those guys are in a week of preparation. John and his staff are going to make adjustments.”
Calipari benched Wheeler at the end of the Notre Dame loss because he couldn’t make a shot. Holtman isn’t sure that will become a trend.
“I think that’s a game-to-game adjustment that people make Holtman said. “I’ve done that before. I would anticipate that we would see him late in the game.”
Jacob Toppin said Thursday that when UK got back to Lexington last Saturday night, he went to the gym to shoot with Wheeler for about two hours until 2 a.m.
“After that we had a little talk about what we can do better,” Toppin said. “And how certain things like this shouldn’t affect us mentally. It’s a long season.”
Washington said if Wheeler just makes a few shots, it changes everything.
“If he probably made two of them (at Notre Dame), it’d probably change everything,” the freshman said. “They’d probably have to step up. And if they did, he’s the fastest kid in the country. He’s going around his man. He’s going to create.”
Washington said Wheeler has shot the ball well all week.
“This is the Sahvir we all know. Everybody says he can’t shoot, but he’s been working on it, like consistently,” Washington said.
4 Responses
I still think David Mintz should be starting.
I like Mintz too but actually wonder if Shaedon Sharpe plays if Mintz will be the guy dropped in the rotation
no one not named Tyty and Kellan should be shooting 3 point shots on this team. No one!!!
No one should be shooting inside the arc unless they are within a range to make at least 50% of their 2 point attempts. There is a no-shoot zone between the arc and the distance at which a player should have permission to shoot it, and no one should be shooting the ball if located in this no-shoot zone. That zone is different for each player, and the coaches and the players should be working together to define that zone on an individual basis.
But, as we are seeing better than ever, there is no coaching, no teaching from Calipari.
It is not sufficient for a coach to say "I believe" player X can make shots, it must be a confidence level of "I know" player X can make those specific shots because we have proven it in practice with successful repetitions.
We don’t have a coach, we have a con man.
How many games do we have to lose before Wheeler develops enough in-game confidence to make shots?