Cason Wallace, who did not play down in Oxford on Tuesday night, is on the day-to-day list moving forward. The freshman injured his knee during Tuesday's shoot-around, which John Calipari is calling just a “knee contusion.” With rumors of him being likely out, just under an hour before game time, the school officially announced him out and sidelined only minutes before tip. The team went without Cason against the Rebels, as he passionately cheered from the bench and rooted on his teammates.
As the starting point guard is averaging 11.3 points and 30.9 minutes a game (21 career games), Kentucky definitely felt his absence during the game. Adjusting for the game-time decision, Sahvir Wheeler took back over as PG1, with CJ Fredrick and Chris Livingston stepping up as the other “guards” in the top three of the first five rolling out on the floor. This also allowed fans to get more looks at Adou Thiero, who totaled in 6.5 minutes.
After the 75-66 win, John Calipari was asked in his postgame interview by Tom Leach what the status might be for Cason Wallace.
“It’s a knee contusion. A bruised knee. That’s all it is. He hurt it in practice this morning and I told him if you aren’t 100% don’t go.”
Calipari told fans not to worry about it that it wasn’t anything major. I had a feeling it wasn’t too serious, as I knew he was participating in the game day shoot-around earlier in the afternoon. Plus, seeing him seem pretty active on it during the timeouts and on the sideline cheering for his team, but then when John Calipari responded that way it eased any worry I had regarding this weekend’s game and what his status could be for it. I fully expect Cason to suit up against Florida Saturday night and pick right back up where he left off.
With Sahvir Wheeler getting handed the keys like old times for one more game, he managed to finish with 4 points, 9 assists backed by 1 turnover, and 4 huge rebounds across 33+ minutes of action.