Shaedon Sharpe (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky fans knew Shaedon Sharpe was going to keep his name in the NBA draft — or at least most of them did. Some accepted his logic that if he was going to be a top 10 pick it made sense to stay in the draft even if he had not played in a game at UK and had indicated he would be at Kentucky for the 2022-23 season.
“I don’t want our fans to be mad at him for doing something he probably has to do,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said Tuesday a few hours before Sharpe announced he was keeping his name in the draft.
But many are “mad” about Sharpe and do not even want him to mention attending Kentucky when his name is called in the draft.
For a national perspective, I reached out to Sean Vinsell of http://hoopsinsight.com, a great site for data-driven college basketball analysis with no bias for any team, to ask him if he thought UK fans should be upset with Sharpe saying he was not going to play but come back for next season and now going to the draft.
“I think fans are reasonable to be a bit upset/disappointed at being misled, but the negativity is going way too far from what I see,” Vinsell said.
Vinsell did think Sharpe would be back at UK for the 2022-23 season until word leaked he would be eligible for the NBA draft.
“After that I was skeptical. I did legitimately believe he would play this last season so that surprised me more,” Vinsell said.
I still think Calipari was surprised, too, and thought he would play. And so did many of the UK players.
Vinsell doesn’t think Sharpe will be a trendsetter where more top players might try the same route.
“I don’t think will be much of a trend. Players like to play, and most advisors aren’t as disingenuous as Sharpe’s seem to have been,” Vinsell said.
Vinsell also thinks UK fans need to get over the negativity and make the best of the situation.
“I think UK fans need to realize that there are only a couple programs that could have the No. 1 recruit leave without ever playing and still keep putting top five teams on the court,” Vinsell said. “UK will be fine next season without Sharpe. Let’s move on.”
25 Responses
My disappointment is not so much with him staying in the draft and collecting his millions of dollars as it is with him sitting on the bench and not being a "team" player when the Cats needed him on the court this spring.
Does this mean that he was good enough for the pros (potential future ) but not good enough for UK (reality now)? Just wondering.
This is true but I think that it cuts much deeper than that for most fans. We are disappointed every time a player leaves early for the draft, but we have managed to accept it so far and wish them well, realizing that is the way it will be with this coach’s philosophy.
The same would have been true for Sharpe if they had just been honest. No one likes being lied to, especially so blatantly, fervently and persistently.
His camp consistently said they always knew he would be draft eligible and a top 10 pick in 2023, but nothing had changed – he was coming back to do it the right way. Some say "go get your bag", but just how much is your integrity worth?
The comments suggest over and over that BBN feels betrayed because he recieved a free scholarship and NIL but did not keep his end of the deal. Granted, it wasn’t an extraordinary amount of $$, but they are taking a stand on principle.
Refusing to play at UK, or practice in front of scouts at UK, or participate in the combine scrimmages also appears to be deceptive- trying to get drafted higher than his ability.
The reason this is going soooo far overboard is because, at least for now, no one has paid for the deception and no one has been exposed, except unnamed sources blaming the handler. People don’t like it when someone escapes responsibility and, in this case, gets rewarded.
The vitriol is not likely to die down soon unless someone takes responsibility or exposes the real truth. Fans are not sure what to believe and every story told so far, defies reason and offends logic.
The hillbillies are a little smarter than they thought- Someone involved badly underestimated the fervor of BBN and, I suspect, their memory will be long on this one.
You nailed it, Horsepower! Righteous indignation and, yes, it will not be abated until BBN feels a sense of justice and retribution.
I made a typo. His family/ handler said they always knew he would be 2022 draft eligible, so nothing changed…..
The real issue here is they pretended not to know his eligibility? There’s not a person alive who does not know when they graduated especially when is the year that they graduated. You know if you have the credits or not. That is not even debatable. Once it was established that he could go pro and he was a projected top 10 pick than it was time to decide can he help our team? Who knows if we would’ve beaten 15 seed with him or not? Who knows if we would’ve won the whole national championship? We will never know because he never got on the floor. If that was totally Cals decision It was a bad one. He should have to repay every dime the school contributed to him.
I move on long time ago. Glad it’s over!!
Deception is the real story here. It is football time soon in the bluegrass now anyway. Time to move on from Shaedon Sharpe. He did absolutely nothing for this program except cause a big stir. That is how most in BBN will remember him, and he could probably care less.
He should have been played, or sent home.
There’s so much conflicting information around this young man that the facts are difficult to discern. One persistent thread in this saga goes like this: Sharpe wanted to play this season at UK…what high level talent who has devoted his life so far to honing his craft wouldn’t want to play?
His parents wanted him to play: What parents who have bleacher butt from years of watching their son play and succeed at every level wouldn’t want their kid to play?
Cal wanted him to play if he could help the team: What coach whose staff invested major amounts of time and money in recruiting a kid wouldn’t want to see their celebrated #1 recruit play?
The handler, Dwayne Washington(?) didn’t want him to play because he wants to become Sharpes’ agent and is protecting his draft stock.
What coach worth his millions who likes to win as much as Cal claims he does would allow a handler to decide whether Sharpe plays or not?
What hall of fame coach would sit a top ten draft pick on the UK bench when 3 guards on the team are hurt: Wheeler, TyTy, Frederick plus Grady playing on painful feet! Looks to me like Sharpe could have helped our injury depleted team if he was as good as his team mates said he was and we fans thought he was!
If Sharpe’s handler made the decision for him not to play when the kid wanted to play, his parents wanted him to play, his team mates wanted him to play, his coaches and Cal wanted him to play I have to confess I just don’t get it, and as a long time UK fan I don’t like it one little bit! Of course I can’t change it but…
I can hope that in the very near future the whole truth will come out about why Sharpe didn’t play at UK.
Call me old school but I thought when a kid received a scholarship the head coach called all the shots about playing time. I think of that as a part of “institutional control.” I thought our coach was a player’s first coach not a sitter’s first coach. I am confident that I am not the only member of BBN who is exceedingly confused and disappointed in the Sharpe saga and I’m glad it’s finally all over except the autopsy!
I think if this S. Sharp scam happens again in the future, Coach Cal. needs to pack his bags, maybe the NBA will take him back! Maybe the NCAA needs to adopt a rule preventing this from happening again!
How was this Cal’s fault? He was the one that was lied to.
Calipari knew this all the time!! The reason Cal didn’t play him last season was he was afraid Sharpe would suck and hurt his draft stock like BJ Boston did the year before!! Cal is the problem!!
Most "one and done" collage basketball players are so selfish and greedy. They are going to make more money than they can ever spend in any lifetime, they need to read about JFK and his famous speech. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, remember this " It’s not what my country can do for me, It"s what I can do for my country" ! Shaedon Sharp, if you would have stayed in collage a little longer, you might of learned about this, and maybe have taken it to heart. You don’t realize if you have come back to UK, they probably would of
won their 9th championship and you probably would have been the most popular player to
have played in UK history, and probably could have made more money than you could have
going to the NBA draft, and probably would have ended up with more fans that would have
followed your NBA career than you could ever have imagined!
True that
This was a fraud from the beginning, and Calipari was chief defrauder!!!!!!
This is not his first trip through this fraud either, just the first kid wasn’t good enough to get an NBA sniff after sitting the spring semester on the UK bench.
This kid won’t be Calipari’s last trip through this fraud either.
Calipari needs to go.
Sharpe should never have been allowed to use the UK program in this manner, either should Diallo.
What I don’t like about it is that he probably took some poor players time from practice that could have benefited that player
This Vinsell is a flipping idiot!! Who the flip cares what he thinks anyway!! Calipari knew this would happen exactly the way it did!! Cal is a joke!
First, no one cares what Sean Vinsell has to say. SS, his people and Cal are all liars. That isn’t debatable. They each earned every ounce of BBN’S scorn.
As long as Cal is around, expect things like this. Sad. ✌🏾
Bottom line character and integrity was never in play whereas greed and deceit were. Unfortunately for Cal, If this kid is a superstar at the next level, many UK fans will never let it go and Cal may never hear the end of this.
Calipari should never hear the end of this!!!!!!!
This is his legacy.
If they are going to mention Kentucky at the draft, they should be honest and also say that he scored zero points and had zero assists.
I’m not mad, just disappointed . Would have liked to have seen Sharpe play at least 1season. If we want to be upset with anyone it should be the NCAA. They are the ones to set the rules.
Go Cats!!
It is not the NCAA in this case, it is the NBA setting the draft eligibilty rules. That does not change the fact that Sharpe used UK in a way that is inappropriate, and Calipari participated in this fraud on the University of Kentucky.
Kid is not part of the BBN or UK history’s. He’s a footnote level with the black eye that was our NCAA infractions….no more and no less. If his “handler” made all these decisions then this kid AND his parents have zero integrity. Don’t tell us “but they wanted him to play” because that’s just BS. Nobody is going to tell my kid what to do and when. If he wants this to go away, he will make sure he doesn’t mention Ky at the draft or going forward. And yes, Cal has his hands in this mess. Period.