John Calipari says Kentucky may be without starting guards vs. MSU

Kentucky may be without Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington when the Wildcats take the floor against Mississippi State on Tuesday.

When asked about the status of his starting backcourt during his weekly call-in radio show, John Calipari initially refused to provide an official update on the guard duo.

“You’re gonna ask me about Sahvir and TyTy. I haven’t seen them today,” Calipari said. “No, I’ve seen them today. Do you want me to give out a scouting report for the other guy we’re playing? They may play, they may not play. I’m sure the gamblers are mad. ‘I need to know before I put that money down.'”

Orlando Antigua said earlier Monday that Washington was “day-to-day” after suffering an ankle injury in Kentucky’s loss at Auburn on Saturday. His availability in practice later in the day would determine if he’d be able to play Tuesday.

“We’ll find out later in practice if he’s going to be available,” Antigua said. “He’s like the rest of us: he’s day-to-day.”

Wheeler also went down twice at Auburn, both on hard hits from Tiger center Walker Kessler. Like we saw in UK’s loss at LSU, Wheeler came up clearly disoriented and eventually left the game late in the second half.

Did either of them practice Monday? Calipari didn’t say. He did, however, confirm Davion Mintz and Kellan Grady ran point guard today, hinting that the team may be without both players vs. Mississippi State.

“At practice, I was able to have Davion and Kellan be point guards,” Calipari said. “I was able to have Shaedon (Sharpe) stay in and practice today. So we were able to do stuff.”

Later in the show, Calipari was a bit more transparent on the situation, saying Kentucky “may not have any guards” Tuesday evening. With tip-off set for 9 p.m. ET, though, the training staff has a bit more time to evaluate both players before making a final decision on their availability.

“We may not have any guards tomorrow. We don’t know,” Calipari said. “Thank goodness the game is at 9 (PM), we got a little more time. But we don’t know yet. We don’t know. … We may be short guards, we don’t know yet.”

Clear as mud.