John Calipari reveals why Shaedon Sharpe did not play for Kentucky

Coming out of high school, Kentucky’s Shaedon Sharpe was rated as the No. 1 shooting guard in the nation, according to the 2021 On3 Consensus Rankings. Not only was he rated the top shooting guard, he was ranked as a top-five overall prospect, according to the same rankings. Sharpe enrolled at Kentucky in January and college basketball fans across the country were wondering all season whether or not the talented freshman would play this year. Eventually, Wildcats head coach John Calipari shut down all speculation by releasing a statement on Feb. 7 saying that Sharpe would not play this season and that he’d prepare to lead the Wildcats during the 2022-2023 college basketball season.

After Thursday night’s gut-wrenching upset to the No. 15 seed St. Peter’s Peacocks in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament, Calipari talked about why the highly touted prospect didn’t play this season for Kentucky.

“At one point he and I sat down and talked about it but I think that was best for him, how we did it. Would he have been a good player? He’d have been pretty good but he joined us midseason,” he said.

Will Sharpe return to Kentucky or will he go pro?

Especially with the bitter taste of the St. Peter’s loss fresh in their minds, many fans across the Kentucky fan base will second guess Calipari’s move to not play Sharpe during the 2021-2022 college basketball season. Now, one of the biggest questions of the 2022 offseason will be whether or not the highly touted shooting guard returns to Lexington for one more season, instead of entering the 2022 NBA Draft. There are a number of mock drafts that have Sharpe slated to be selected as a Top 10 overall pick in the upcoming draft. That kind of money will be tough to pass up. Some, such as Stadium’s college basketball analyst, Jeff Goodman, have the sharpshooter being selected in the Top 5 overall.

For college basketball’s sake, it’d be nice to see Sharpe return for one more season. The uber-talented prospect will have a tough decision to make very soon.