John Calipari takes blame for Sahvir Wheeler's 8 turnovers at Texas A&M

On3 imageby:Zack Geoghegan01/19/22

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Sahvir Wheeler closed out Kentucky’s 64-58 win over Texas A&M on Wednesday night as the Wildcats leading scorer.

The junior point guard finished with 12 points on an efficient 5-8 shooting, including a 2-2 clip from beyond the arc off a pair of wide-open 3s. It was the first time since the season-opener against Duke that he’d hit two shots from deep in the same game, and they came at a time when his teammates couldn’t buy a shot from distance.

Wheeler also dished out four assists and recorded a steal in his 31 minutes of action against the Aggies. When he got inside the paint and put his head down, he was tough to stop from getting a clean look at the rim.

But there were extended moments during that thrilling road win where Wheeler was borderline unplayable. In fact, UK head coach John Calipari had to sit his starting point guard at times during the second half because of his inability to keep the offense chugging along. Wheeler finished with a career-high eight turnovers, four coming in the first half and four more in the second. The majority of them were the result of picking the ball up with nowhere to go, where he either got trapped or forced a tough pass that always wound up as a turnover.

Texas A&M did an excellent job of bringing pressure on pick-and-rolls with Wheeler as the ball handler, and it put him in tight situations where he struggled to make the proper split-second decisions. It appeared to catch him by surprise. That being said, Calipari immediately stated after the game that it was his fault Wheeler seemingly couldn’t beat the Aggie heat.

First of all, I did a really bad job in this pick and roll stuff for Sahvir (Wheeler) and made him look bad,” Calipari said postgame. “We’ve got to be better prepared for what we’re doing and talk them through–you’ve got to drill them. This is what we’re doing.”

In reality, Kentucky did a pretty bad job on offense as a whole. Per Corey Price, this was the first time in the Calipari-era that UK shot worse than 40 percent from the field and 25 percent from beyond the arc while committing at least 15 turnovers (finished with 17). Despite that, Kentucky still managed to sneak away with the win against a team that was 15-2 coming into the night.

In the two previous games that UK failed to score at least 70 points this season, it resulted in losses to Notre Dame and LSU. Kentucky scored 64 against Texas A&M and earned easily its toughest victory of the season. Aggie head coach Buzz Williams brought as much trapping pressure as he could and it gave Kentucky, especially Wheeler, fits all night long.

It felt as if Wheeler was either playing too fast or too slow. When he played too fast, he would get caught in the air with no one around to bail him out. When he played too slow, Texas A&M would trap him and force jump balls or more turnovers. There was no happy medium to be found.

This performance from Wheeler will be a learning experience for both himself and Calipari. Both sides understand they need to be more prepared for what is going to be thrown at them. Against a better opponent, Kentucky might not have been able to overcome Wheeler’s eight miscues.

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2024-03-28