John Calipari didn't indicate Monday if Sahvir Wheeler would be able to play tonight or not. (Vicky Graff Photo)
John Calipari said on his weekly radio show Monday night that he would start five seniors against Vanderbilt tonight in UK’s Senior Night Game.
Kentucky has six seniors — Oscar Tshiebwe, Jacob Toppin, Antonio Reeves, CJ Fredrick, Sahvir Wheeler and Brennan Canada.
Wheeler has been hurt and all Calipari said Monday night was that he did not practice and had no real update on his ankle injury.
“Being injured, it’s killing him. The doctors are telling him how to proceed and keeping me informed,” Calipari told Tom Leach. “We’re anxious for him to get back, but he’s got to be healthy.”
Wheeler has missed five straight games and likely will not play against Vanderbilt tonight meaning that former walk-on Brennan Canada should start tonight with Thiebwe, Reeves, Toppin and Fredrick.
Kentucky is 6-2 in games Wheeler has not played due to injury and Saturday Auburn coach Bruce Pearl talked about how difficult playing UK is with Cason Wallace at point guard because of his size and strength.
Former UK All-American Jack Givens understands why some fans have been “down” on Wheeler this season.
“But I would ask people not to look at what happens in the last four or five seconds of the shot clock and look at the last 10 seconds and see how many times he got the ball to somebody where it was supposed to be but guys who received the ball do nothing but hold ball and throw to back to him. Then he only has five to eight seconds to create something. That is not fair to anybody,” Givens said.
“Most people might not see that. They see Sahvir trying to find a shot, so he gets blamed for taking bad shots, off balance shots after he passed the ball to a guy who did not know what to do with it. I recognize others might not see that so they wrongly blame Sahvir for the problems.”
Givens said Wheeler had “accepted” his backup role when he hurt his ankle and was excelling coming off the bench.
“There are going to be some games Kentucky cannot win without him coming off the bench with his speed and to give Cason a break,” Givens said. “I know everybody doesn’t see it that way, but it is true and they need to get him back healthy and playing.”
5 Responses
Why? By all accounts, this team is playing its best basketball of the season, and has "turned around" without him.
I’m glad Jack saw the same thing I did. The guys would pass up 4-5 shots then throw it to Wheeler with 5 seconds left. It wouldn’t even be a issue if shots had been taken. If you can’t see Wheeler is needed, then you have blinded yourself.
Well, will we ever know the truth of the matter? I doubt it because Calipari has admitted that he lies about player injuries and may say a player is injured when there are other non-injury issues at play.
The rumors that have been swirling around this kid for the last 2 week just got a huge boost.
People can blame Wheeler all they want, it wasn’t all on Wheeler when the team was struggling as a whole. It was the whole team that was struggling and all I got to say shame on the people that is and still is bashing at Wheeler. You just don’t blame one player for the struggles like Jack Givens said.
Wheeler has quit, per the rumors that are circulating and if that is true, he needs to just be shown the door, not honored by the coach’s wife on senior night.
This has absolutely nothing to do with the struggles that this team has had from the moment Calipari exerted his coaching influence on this group. Two separate issues.