The Big Blue Nation no longer has to anticipate whether Shaedon Sharpe will play or not this season. John Calipari announced via Twitter that the five-star recruit will NOT play this season, but rather continue to just practice with the team and gear up for next season.
"He is committed to bettering himself and our team in practice this year and being better prepared to lead us next season." said the Head Coach.
This announcement likely came due to the large controversy surrounding Shaedon since he announced he would be joining the team midseason. The plan has always been for Shaedon to practice this year and then be a leader for the team next season. However, many fans want to see one of the top pro prospects play for Kentucky this season, just in case he leaves for the NBA draft this summer and never plays for Kentucky.
Despite all the anticipation, John Calipari did tell us before he even got here that this was the plan, that Shaedon wouldn't be playing this season anyways. So essentially, there is no 'new' news here.
At the end of the day, I do not believe there is any true reason to panic right now. Kentucky is currently a top 5 ranked team in the country without Shaedon having played a single minute. The surprise emergence of freshman big man Daimion Collins against Alabama gives us hope that even without Sharpe, we still might have an productive addition to our rotation in March.
John Calipari and Shaedon Sharpe's camp are also still both claiming that Shaedon will be back for another season. The good news is even if this winds up not being true, we live in the era of the transfer portal, and can add a veteran scorer in the offseason to replicate some of the production Shaedon would have provided.
Between NIL opportunities and being the leader on next years team, there are plenty of intriguing options that could keep him here throughout the summer. As of now, that seems to still be the game plan.