John Calipari expects DJ Wagner to return 'sooner than later' for Kentucky

Kentucky lost both of its games this past week without its starting point guard.

DJ Wagner has been nursing an ankle injury over the past few weeks, which has now sidelined him for the past two games. In turn, No. 10 Kentucky lost both games at home and are expected to take a dip in this week’s AP Top 25 poll.

After giving up 102 points against No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday, Wildcats head coach John Calipari gave a slight injury update on the former McDonald’s All-American.

“He is probably – I’d say – I don’t even want to say. Okay. I’m expecting him to play soon,” Calipari said postgame. “Sooner than later. But you know, he did the high ankle sprain and came back against Penn. He’s done okay. He’s freshman of the week four diferent times. So it’s not like he played awful but we need him healthy. It was really bothering him. We’ve done some things and I think he’s getting healthy.

“It’s like you all know, when he doesn’t play, we don’t win. You know that. We can go crazy about this and it’s that and it’s this. Let’s get our team together. We’ve still got good players.”

Without Wagner, Kentucky is missing out on 12 points and 3.7 assists per game. He scored 18 points in the 105-96 win over Georgia, but that was the only time in his last four appearances that he scored in double figures. Before the Mississippi State win on Jan. 17, Wagner was on a four-game stretch where he averaged 15.5 points. Kentucky was 3-1 during that stretch to begin SEC play with the exception being an overtime loss to Texas A&M on the road.

Overall, Kentucky is 0-3 without Wagner on the court this season. The last two games, his absence has been apparent — but many overlook the one game he missed earlier this season, Kentucky’s head-scratching loss against UNC Wilmington.

Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham — who just scored a career-high 35 points in the loss to Tennessee — have had to step up in Wagner’s absence. After the game, both freshman explained the importance of Wagner to Kentucky. Both agreed that his presence is missed, but Kentucky has to be able to win without him.

Kentucky has a quick turn-around for its Tuesday night road trip to Vanderbilt. Wagner’s status for the game likely won’t be updated until game day, but with a massive non-conference matchup against Gonzaga on Saturday Calipari might not want to rush his starting point guard back onto the court so soon if he doesn’t have to.