John Calipari addresses Shaedon Sharpe's future with team following early end to season

Kentucky head coach John Calipari recorded the final installment of his season-long radio show Monday where he was asked about the potential return of former five-star recruit Shaedon Sharpe. In typical Calipari fashion, he answered the question without actually answering the question.

“We sat down with him and he has explore to decide if he is ready for this right now,” Calipari said. “… “I hope I get a chance to coach him in real games because I’ve really enjoyed him in practice. I’ve enjoyed him as a person. He’s a real star.”

Local and national media have been wondering if Sharpe would even consider returning after enrolling at UK for the spring 2022 semester. Calipari and Sharpe decided that it would be best if the reclassified freshman sat out until next season pretty quickly after arriving on campus.

Most mock drafts have Sharpe going in the lottery despite no official college experience, but the potential is there. He averaged 22.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists in the 2021 Nike Elite Youth Basketball League and was the No. 1 shooting guard in nation, per all major recruiting websites.

Sharpe chose Kentucky over Arizona, Oklahoma State, Kansas and the G-League, meaning he has already turned down professional money once, why couldn’t he do it again?

With incoming fellow five-star freshman Chris Livingston and Cason Wallace joining the program over the summer, a Sharpe return would make them the highest-ranked trio in college basketball — all three are ranked top 10 in the class of 2022, according to On3. Even with the de-commitment of point guard Skyy Clark, Kentucky still boast the No. 2 overall recruiting class trailing only Duke, who has three five-stars and six overall commits already.

If one thing is for sure, Big Blue Nation is keeping their fingers crossed that he returns, but they are all too familiar to having players leave for the NBA.