Shaedon Sharpe is not ready to play in a game at Kentucky according to coach John Calipari. (Twitter Photo)
John Calipari is still not ready to say Shaedon Sharpe will play for the Wildcats but he will not totally rule out the possibility, either. Sharpe, the top-ranked recruit in the 2022 class who reclassified to the 2021 recruiting class, is now enrolled at UK. He’s not practicing with the team yet but has started individual workouts. Kentucky Basketball posted a welcome video and Sharpe has also posted on social media about his arrival.
“He just has to blend in and be a teammate, which means you’ve got to be around the guys. You’ve got to be there. You’ve got to talk. Shaedon is not a guy that says a lot. You can do that, but the only way you create relationships is that you speak, you listen, you talk. So, he’ll have to do that,” said Calipari Friday.
“But he’s a ways away from playing games, and it may be a year from now. And they all know. I talked to them. We don’t have a plan for him to play this year. Maybe he does, but that is not the plan, and it never has been. Now, I never said it because I wanted everybody to go crazy, all the other places. ‘Well, they may have him.’ But, the reality of it is we never had a plan.”
No plan? Remember Sharpe has said he plans to be at UK next season but also has said he’s willing to play this season if that is what Calipari wants.
“If you ask me right now, my guess is he won’t play, but you don’t know what happens. I mean, we’ve had injury after injury, this happen and that happen,” Calipari said. “We’re down to six, seven guys, I may tell him, ‘Look, man, you’ve got to go in seven minutes a game. You’ve got to play some.’ But, my hope is we’re never there.”
Of course, UK might have been there in Tuesday’s loss at LSU when it lost starting guards Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington to injuries. Calipari said Wheeler is still day-to-day going into today’s game with Georgia while Washington is expected to play.
Kentucky had four consecutive blowout wins before losing at LSU. Scenarios like that would seem an easy opportunity to give Sharpe at least limited playing time to perhaps help him for next season.
”Not if he’s not ready. If I don’t think he’s ready to be put in a game, I’m not going to do that to him. I’m trying to protect all of these kids. I kind of explained that to him in my vision for how you need to play. In most cases it’s I want you to be aggressive, I want you to do what you do best, but I also want to protect you,” Caliapri said.
“So, with him, you’ve got to get in unbelievable shape, he’s not even close to that. You’ve got to be able to play fast, yet still be skilled. This isn’t, you know, my pace; I’m still working on freshmen that have been here the summer, the fall, and months, and they’re still not playing at the (level). I’m still working on a couple of guys that have been here three years that you’ve got to play with more intensity, more fight. You have to fly. You can’t run at your speed. Run faster than you think you can run.
It takes time and to create a new habit is hard. And so, I’m not going to put him in a situation where he’s not ready to go in.”
Calipari explained he had Sharpe jump and touch the rim with his head Thursday. Then when he shot a jump shot, he barely elevated off the floor. Calipari also said Sharpe didn’t make any shots when the Cats were running full speed in practice.
“This was his first day. This stuff is all new. When we start going and he’s going live, he’s not even gone live yet, that’s when we’ll figure some more stuff out,” Calipari said. “Right now, I want him to get acclimated, I want him to get to know his teammates, he’s got a suite mate, but I want him … who’s taking him under their wing and helping him?”
