Sahvir Wheeler plays North Carolina off floor in big Las Vegas win
Seven days ago, Sahvir Wheeler was played off the floor against Notre Dame. Kentucky’s starting point did not play the final 5:23 in that 66-62 loss to the Fighting Irish–two total points on an 0-5 shooting clip where Notre Dame was flat out ignoring his offense as a threat.
With redemption on his mind, Wheeler flipped the script: he played the entire North Carolina team off the floor down in Las Vegas. It was a masterclass performance from the junior, who finished Kentucky’s 98-69 beating of the Tar Heels with his best game in a Wildcat uniform.
“Everyone is gonna have a bad game,” Wheeler said of his performance in the loss to Notre Dame. “It just so happened that it was that game and we lost. I’m a confident kid, as many people can tell, and I play for the big lights. This is why I came here, to play against the best, to be challenged every day in practice by my teammates, by my coaches, and play a tough schedule where we got to play, you gotta show up to win, you gotta win your matchup. So this opportunity, I was really looking forward to it.”
Wheeler’s night saw him just one point shy of his career-high, posting 26 points on 12-15 shooting in 32 minutes. He slithered through the North Carolina defense from the opening tip to the final buzzer, playing with a level of confidence that was a complete 180 from what went down last weekend in South Bend. Wheeler even knocked down a couple of jumpers, taking the elbow looks that UNC was giving him.
He did all this without even attempting a three-pointer, his first time all season long doing so.
The 5-foot-9 lead guard wasn’t just enforcing his will with silky scoop layups and up-and-unders at the rim though. He eventually used his attacking mindset as a way to open up his teammates for terrific shots. Wheeler added eight assists–seven coming in the second half–and just two turnovers. In total, the transfer from Georgia was responsible for 45 of UK’s 98 points.
“The biggest thing was watching film and seeing what they gave me,” Wheeler said postgame about his gameplan for UNC. “I know my strengths is coming off that elbow area, making jump shots going right or going left. Coach (John) Cal(ipari) is like shoot shots that you know you can make. Don’t worry about anything else, just shoot balls, play with confidence, and that’s what I did and that’s what forced them to make that adjustment.
“They started going under at the beginning of the game, I made a couple of shots. Second half, now you’re going over, now the lane has opened up like the Red Sea. I was able to get guys, get some layups and create for other guys as well.”
His defense was especially pesky. Wheeler recorded four steals, all of them directly leading to a Kentucky bucket. He smacked North Carolina early, and once he tasted blood, the Tarheel guards froze. Wheeler invoked his will early and his confidence continued to climb.
From the outside looking in, the difference appeared to be more off-ball movement for Wheeler. He logged at least a few miles on his legs throughout the night, working hard baseline to pop free. North Carolina was perfectly fine going under Wheeler on screens, but once he received the ball, either via hand-off or a pass from the top of the key with a full head of steam, infiltrating the Tarheel paint was a breeze.
Against Notre Dame, Wheeler was forcing more than he needed to. But after seven days to watch the film and assess what went wrong, he knew exactly how to amend it.
“Challenging the big’s foot speed,” Wheeler said about how he was able to beat North Carolina consistently. “There’s not many people that can match my foot speed so I know once I got downhill with good screens set by our bigs like Oscar (Tshiebwe) and Lance (Ware), I was able to make plays.”
Wheeler became the first Kentucky player over the last 25 seasons to drop at least 25 points, five assists, and four steals. His on-court performance was spectacular, but it’s his actions and voice that carried the most weight with Calipari; UK needs Wheeler to be a leader.
“The biggest thing I did prior to the game,” Calipari said, “Individually and then in front of the team, was ‘Sahvir, lead us. It’s not based on how you’re playing Sahvir, lead us. If you’re playing great, lead us and get everybody involved. If you’re not making shots or you’re a little confused, lead us. Lead.‘ And that’s what he did today.”
Wheeler sure did lead on Saturday. He led Kentucky right to its biggest win of the season.
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