DJ Wagner picks up second SEC Freshman of the Week honor

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dj-wagner-picks-second-sec-freshman-week-honor — Photo by Dr. Michael Huang | Kentucky Sports Radio

For the second time this season, Kentucky point guard DJ Wagner was named the Southeastern Conference’s Freshman of the Week.

The news was announced on Monday afternoon by the league office. Kentucky only played one game last week, an 87-83 win in Atlanta over then-No. 9 North Carolina, but Wagner was huge for the Wildcats. The 6-foot-3 floor general finished with a line of 14 points on 6-14 shooting (2-4 3PT) to go along with a season-high six rebounds, five assists, one steal, and two turnovers in 35 minutes of action.

Wagner was also named SEC Freshman of the Week in late November after averaging 25 points and 5.5 assists on nearly 55 percent shooting in wins over St. Joseph’s and Marshall. He is the second Wildcat to take home the honor this season. Reed Sheppard was also tabbed SEC Freshman of the Week at the beginning of the month.

Kentucky now has 128 weekly SEC honors — more than any other school — during the John Calipari era, which includes 97 SEC Freshman of the Week winners and 31 SEC Player of the Week recognitions.

It was a slow start to the 2023-24 season for Wagner, but he’s looked every bit like the five-star prospect he was out of high school as of late. Since winning his first SEC Freshman of the Week award, Wagner has been an important piece to Kentucky’s recent success.

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Wagner played a crucial role in Kentucky’s win over Penn last weekend in Philadelphia with nine points and seven assists in 30 minutes. It was his first game back after suffering an ankle injury against the Miami Hurricanes on Nov. 28. Not-so-coincidentally, the one game he sat out due to the injury was UK’s shocking loss at home to UNC-Wilmington.

Through nine games this season (all starts), Wagner is averaging 12.8 points, 3.9 assists, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.2 steals in 27.4 minutes per game on shooting splits of 41.3/29.4/73.1. He’ll suit up again for Kentucky this Thursday at 6:00 p.m. EST (ESPN) when the Wildcats hit the road to take on in-state rival Louisville. The Cardinals were among the finalists to land Wagner out of high school. His grandfather, Wilt Wagner, is a member of UL’s staff as the Director of Player Development & Alumni Relations.