John Calipari provides injury update on Cason Wallace

Kentucky guard Cason Wallace left Wednesday’s 68-66 loss to Vanderbilt early in the second half with an ankle injury and did not return. After the game, head coach John Calipari said that Wallace underwent a positive X-Ray after he limped back to the locker room.

“He’s fine, it’s not swelled,” Calipari said postgame. “I’m hoping he’ll be okay for Saturday. I don’t know. And if not, we need to figure out how we do it against pressure.”

Wallace had six points on 2-of-7 shooting when he went down and Vanderbilt opened up a double-digit lead on the Wildcats after he left the game. The Commodores led by as many as 11 points before Kentucky mounted a comeback — though, it wouldn’t last.

Vanderbilt’s Jordan Wright nailed an off-balance 10-footer with 2.7 seconds remaining to hand the Wildcats a loss on senior night. The loss drops Kentucky to fourth in the SEC standings and jumps to Commodores all the way up to fifth.

Kentucky will need to win Saturday’s game against Arkansas if they want to earn a top-four seed in next week’s conference tournament. If not, Vanderbilt could sneak into UK’s, or Tennessee‘s spot in the quarterfinals.

Bruce Pearl evaluates Kentucky’s improvement through this season

Kentucky‘s blowout win over Auburn moved the Wildcats into the six-seed line in ESPN’s latest edition of Bracketology just two weeks after being on the outside looking in. 

With two games left until the regular season ends, UK is playing its best basketball of the season. Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl was on the receiving end of Kentucky’s best performance of the season and praised the Wildcats for sticking to their roles down the stretch this season.

“They’re obviously really comfortable in their roles,” Pearl said after the loss. “Cason Wallace is a difference maker running the point, He can defend and play-make, finish shots. The [Antonio] Reeves kid is obviously a great shooter, he’s an older player. [Kentucky] can still be aggressive and be able to make mistakes. When you’re playing 35 minutes and they don’t have quite the depth, guys are really comfortable in their roles.”

John Calipari will typically play seven or eight players in his rotation depending on the night, and those players know what is expected out of them at this point in the season and it’s showing.