Sahvir Wheeler has a neck injury that likely will keep him out of tonight's game. (UK Athletics Photo)
Kentucky may be without its starting point guard tonight. Sahvir Wheeler, who suffered a neck strain on a screen in the Wildcats’ 65-60 loss at LSU on Tuesday night, will likely not play against his former teammates when Kentucky hosts Georgia.
“The neck is still bothering him, so it will be day-to-day,” said Kentucky coach John Calipari, who didn’t expect Wheeler to practice on Friday. “I know he wants to play against Georgia. And he’s not doing it out of spite. He just wants to play games. But, you know, it’ll be day-to-day.”
If Wheeler isn’t able to play, TyTy Washington will likely take over at the point guard, while Davion Mintz will split time with Washington.
“Everybody knows that the guy that stirs the drink for us is Sahvir,” Calipari said. “But you’ve got two guys that can play that position that run our club. I told him, ‘You’ve got to sub yourself before TV timeouts. You can’t try and play every minute.’ Yesterday he was really good, and we’ll see what happens for us. If he’s that guy if Sahvir cannot play, the ball will be in his hands more.”
In Tuesday’s loss at LSU, Washington took over for Wheeler as the Wildcats (11-3, 1-1) nearly escaped with a win before a late collapse enabled the Tigers to take a six-point victory in Baton Rouge. Calipari’s focus in practice this week has been establishing late-game clarity with his squad.
“(We’ve tried to) make it a little clearer for these guys so there is no confusion — ‘This is how we’re doing this. Last four minutes, this is what we’re doing in these kinds of games,'” he said. “Because, to be honest, three games, we’ve got a chance to win with four minutes to go, and the three games we lost we kind of did the same thing. So, that comes back to me.”
Although Georgia (5-9, 0-1) has struggled, Calipari doesn’t think it will be an easy contest for his squad and said Tom Crean’s team is capable of pulling off an upset. The Bulldogs defeated the Wildcats 63-62 last year in Athens.
“They had Texas A&M beat,” Calipari said. “They had the lead with six seconds to go and a kid makes a pull-up 3, not a screen, not a screen down and screen away play, the kid just came down and jacked a 3 and it was guarded, and he makes the 3 at the buzzer and that’s how they lose. And Texas A&M is 12-2. … it’s a good challenge.”
Gametracker: Georgia at Kentucky, 6 p.m., Saturday. TV/Radio: SEC Network, UK Radio Network.
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Keith Taylor is sports editor for Kentucky Today. Reach him at Keith.taylor@kentuckytodaycom and via Twitter at keithtaylor21.
