Cats Hoping for Better 'Finish' in Close Games
After falling at LSU on Tuesday night, Kentucky has now lost three games this season. All three were close losses that came down to the very end of the game.
The Cats have had their struggles down the stretch in those three losses. And that’s why, according to forward Oscar Tshiebwe, UK has a new focus word – finish.
“One thing I would say we struggle with a little bit (is) to finish a game,” Tshiebwe said. “So, we’ve been working on the last minutes to finish a game. We’ve got to know how to finish.”
A closer examination of UK’s three setbacks illustrate that point. In the season-opening loss to Duke, the Cats trailed by just four, 69-65, with 6:07 to play. However, Duke would score seven straight points and would eventually win by eight.
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| Kentucky vs. Georgia | ||
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Wed., Jan. 8 – 6:00 p.m. ET |
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| Coverage | ||
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TV: SEC Network |
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| UK | Stats | UGA |
| 11-3 | Record | 5-9 |
| 1-1 | Conference Record | 0-1 |
| 82.2 | PPG | 70.6 |
| 60.8 | Opp PPG | 73.1 |
| .489 | FG% | .442 |
| .382 | Opp FG% | .446 |
| 44.4 | RPG | 35.4 |
| .336 | 3PT FG% | .312 |
| .281 | Opp 3PT FG% | .340 |
| 17.1 | APG | 14.4 |
| 7.1 | SPG | 5.4 |
| 5.3 | BPG | 2.9 |
In UK’s loss at Notre Dame, the Cats led 62-61 with 1:50 to play, only to see the Fighting Irish score the final five points of the game.
Then on Tuesday, Kentucky had a 52-51 lead with 6:44 to play at LSU. The Tigers would score 10 in a row to seemingly put the game away with 2:35 left. But Kentucky rallied and got within one, 61-60, on a Davion Mintz layup with 27 seconds to play.
On the next possession, Tshiebwe came up with a steal but the Cats turned the ball right back over to the Tigers, who scored to seal the win.
UK head coach John Calipari is trying to clarify what he wants his team to do in those late-game scenarios.
“We’ve got stuff we’ve got to clean up and I started with it (Thursday),” Calipari said. “Make it a little clearer for these guys, so there’s no confusion. This is how we’re doing this. Last four minutes, this is what we’re doing in these kind of games because to be honest, three games, where we had 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.”
Tshiebwe thinks that the Cats need to slow things down in tight games down the stretch.
“When we get to the end of the game, we feel like we’ve got to do everything but that’s the moment where we have to slow down,” Tshiebwe said. “We’re focusing on how we have to finish against other teams.”
Calipari knows that his role is to put the Cats in the best position to win at the end of games.
“So, last four minutes, I can’t make a shot for them, I can’t get a rebound, I can’t fight for them,” Calipari said. “But I can put them in a position where they have the play they needed to make and they just didn’t make it and then you walk away and say hey, it wasn’t our day. But that’s not what’s happening right now.”
After the loss to LSU on Tuesday, the Cats hope to be more effective at finishing as conference play continues.
Wheeler Questionable vs. Georgia
Kentucky guard Sahvir Wheeler’s highly anticipated game vs. his former team, Georgia, is up in the air. Wheeler is officially day-to-day with a neck injury he suffered in Tuesday’s game at LSU.
“I’ve got to prepare as though he’s not going to play in that Georgia game in case he doesn’t,” John Calipari said Wednesday on his radio show.
Later, on Friday, Calipari acknowledged he knows Wheeler wants to face his former team.
“I know he wants to play against Georgia,” Calipari said. “And he’s not doing it out of spite. He just wants to play games.”
Wheeler, who entered the game second in the country in assists per game, was knocked out of the contest less than four minutes into the game when he ran head-first into a screen by LSU’s 7-foot, 230-pound Efton Reid. Wheeler was helped off the court by UK’s medical staff and did not return to the court.
Without Wheeler, UK scored a season-low 60 points and shot a season-worst 36.2%. With freshman guard TyTy Washington Jr. also sidelined for part of the second half with cramps in his legs, UK managed just one field goal over nearly a 12-minute stretch and was outscored 20-2 after UK took a 50-41 lead with 13:06 left to play.
“You saw that Sahvir stirs the drink offensively for us,” Calipari said. “Makes our game fast. Someone said, in the last minutes Kellan (Grady) didn’t get the ball. And I say, we didn’t have a point guard in. So, those guys who would find him, that’s who they are. So now we’ve got to say, all right, how do we do this?”
Wheeler was likely looking forward to the matchup vs. his former team. He led the Southeastern Conference in assists per game and assist-to-turnover ratio last season at Georgia. His 193 assists in 2020-21 broke Georgia’s previous single-season assists record by 24 dimes despite a shortened season.
He transferred after the year was over.
Wheeler has been as good as advertised for the Wildcats. His assists average took a hit with the limited action Tuesday, but he is still ranked third nationally with 7.3 assists per game (through games on Jan. 4). Wheeler has dished out at least eight assists seven times and at least six assists in 11 games while adding 9.6 points per game. His 26 points vs. North Carolina is the most by a Wildcat this season.
Shaedon Sharpe Arrives on Campus
Shaedon Sharpe, originally a part of the 2022 signing class and the consensus No. 1 player in the 2022 class, has enrolled early at the University of Kentucky and is on campus.
Sharpe arrived earlier this week and is undergoing testing and workouts while he gets acclimated to campus. His playing status for the remainder of the 2021-22 season has not been determined at this time.
“We will bring him along slow,” John Calipari said at his radio show Wednesday. “I want him in practice. I want to see him fly up and down the court and play that way and have that mentality. It takes time to teach it. I want to see if he can make shots when he’s playing that fast and all that stuff. But he’s not ready to be playing in games yet.”
Calipari went a step further Friday and said there isn’t a current plan to play Sharpe this season.
“If you ask me right now, my guess is he won’t play, but you don’t know what happens,” Calipari said. “I mean, we’ve had injury after injury, this happen and that happen. 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.”
Calipari added that he looks like he’s grown since he signed with the Wildcats. UK will provide official measurements, jersey number and background soon after he goes through orientation and evaluations.
Sharpe averaged 22.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.7 assists in the 2021 Nike Elite Youth Basketball League this past summer. If the rankings hold and Sharpe remains in the 2022 class, he would be the first consensus No. 1 prospect to sign with Kentucky since Nerlens Noel in 2012.
