Kentucky guard Cason Wallace expected to play vs Tennessee

NS_headshot_clearbackgroundby:Nick Schultz•01/13/23•

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Kentucky guard Cason Wallace is expected to play Saturday against Tennessee, sources told On3 and KSR’s Jack Pilgrim. He left this week’s game against South Carolina after just eight minutes.

Wallace was dealing with back spasms, head coach John Calipari said after the game, and that’s why he left the game so early. He ranks third on the Wildcats roster with 11.6 points per game and his 3.7 assists per game ranks second on the team.

Wallace has started 16 games for Kentucky as a freshman this year. He arrived on campus as a highly touted recruit, coming in as a five-star prospect and the nation’s No. 8 overall player from the 2022 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

The loss to South Carolina was Kentucky’s second straight after a two-game winning streak over Louisville and LSU. Calipari addressed the struggles after the game and reiterated his frustration.

“This is a long season,” Calipari said. “It’s a marathon. Am I happy? No. I’m not happy. I hate losing. You know, we were undermanned, but it doesn’t matter. You are still playing to win. And the first half of just like, you know, come on. And look, this team, I gotta be a little bit everything with this team. First of all, I gotta build them up. But I still gotta hold them accountable. And you’re looking at guys, like going nuts on people right now is not the answer. That’s just not the answer. 

“Now, can I be tougher on them in practice and all that? Yeah, I can. Again, there were things today that I look at and I just say you know, we’re better than that. And now for me, it’s a marathon. I still think this team could be good. Gotta have a full roster and then we gotta go. I thought offensively, we did some good stuff today. But defensively, you know, six turnovers in a game and you lose the game? Never heard that before but again, you know, they out rebounded us.”

On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this report.