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D.J. Wagner missed Kentucky’s losses to Florida and Tennessee last week with an ankle injury but coach John Calipari said Saturday night he was “expecting him to play soon” and hopefully maybe tonight against Vanderbilt in Nashville.
“He did the high ankle sprain and came back against Penn (earlier in the season). He’s done okay. He’s (SEC) freshman of the week four different times. So its not like he played awful but we need him healthy if it was really bothering him,” Calipari said. “We’ve done some things and I think he’s getting healthy.”
Kentucky is now 0-3 without Wagner as he also missed UK’s home loss to UNC-Wilmington early in the season. However, Calipari certainly didn’t send a great message to his other players about Wagner’s absence.
“It’s like you all know, when he doesn’t play, we don’t win. You know that,” Calipari said.
He did go on to say UK had other “good players” after making it seem like without Wagner that the Cats could not win.
Wagner is averaging 12 points, 1.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game while playing 28.4 minutes per game. He’s shooting 43.5 percent from the field and 31 percent from 3.
“DJ is a great teammate. He’s very vocal on the court. And he does everything that we need him to do,” Kentucky guard Reed Sheppard said after the Tennessee loss. “He’s really good at keeping guys on the game. And then on defense and offense, he’s just a dog. So, he’s really fun to play with.
“But we have got to win without him as well. We’ll keep working and we’ll keep getting better and we’ll keep fighting as a team and this game isn’t going to define the rest of the season. It’s a long season.”
It’s going to be a long season if UK doesn’t start playing better. The Cats have lost three of their last four games to drop into a fifth-place tie in the SEC.
Rob Dillingham had 35 points and a career-high 35 points on 14 of 20 shooting from the field against Tennessee with Wagner out but Dillingham said UK missed Wagner a “lot” when he didn’t play.
“He’s another piece of the team. He’s got grit and DJ wants it. DJ comes to play every day and not everybody has that mindset,” Dillingham said. “That’s why when we play, we miss him as our point guard. He comes to play every day and gets our starting five a push. So, just his mindset, leadership, and want to win (is what UK misses).”
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said he knew Wagner was a “terrific player” even though he did not know if he would play or not against the Vols.
“I’ll say it, and I’ve said it many times, there’s not a better coach in the country that’s going to deal with adversity like John does and he will get his guys better,” Barnes said. “A lot of young guys. When we were going through the scouting report, it was freshman, freshman, freshman.
“And when you’ve got a guy (Wagner) that obviously they’ve counted on up to this point, and obviously everybody’s watched him play through the years, he’s a valuable part. But I can assure you this, that whatever deck that John’s got he’s going to coach that. He’s not going to sit around and say, ‘Well, we don’t have this, we don’t have that.’ He’s going to take what he’s got and try to make the most out of it.”
Barnes said he was concerned about Kentucky’s guard play and knew how good Wagner had been.
“We knew that he’s a guy that can get to the mid-range, he’s got a terrific left hand, going to the glass. But in terms of the preparation, we talked about their guards, and trying to keep them out of transition, talked about how important it was to get good shots and not let them get out and go,” Barnes said.
