Kentucky's Senior Night was a disaster

Kentucky’s Senior Night did not go as planned. And if Cason Wallace is out more than a game, you can call it a complete disaster. Maybe it still is.

To start, Sahvir Wheeler, one of the team’s six seniors, wasn’t there. Wheeler had an ill-timed medical procedure Wednesday morning and “was still groggy” at 3 p.m., so John Calipari pulled him from the pregame Senior Day ceremony. Wheeler was represented by Calipari’s wife, Ellen, because Wheeler’s family couldn’t make it to accept his framed jersey, either. A video message from Wheeler? He was unable to do that, too. Zero participation from the team’s point guard of two years during a time-honored celebration of him and his teammates.

Respectfully, Wheeler’s absence was the least of Kentucky’s concerns Wednesday night. He was missed during “My Old Kentucky Home” (and Rupp Arena gave him a loud reception when his name was announced) but Wheeler is very unlikely to be a part of the postseason run and he hasn’t been available in weeks, so his absence spoke more to his relationship with Kentucky than anything on the basketball court.

And on the basketball court, it was worse than one absentee.

Obviously, Cason Wallace’s second-half ankle injury is the biggest worry out of Kentucky’s shocking loss to Vanderbilt; although, Calipari gave a positive update in his postgame comments. When asked about Wallace, he replied, “They X-rayed. He’s fine. It’s not swelled. So, we’ll see. I’m hoping that he’ll be okay for Saturday, but I don’t know.”

Given all of the possible scenarios for an ankle injury and Wallace’s inability to put weight on the ankle last night, it’s maybe the best news Kentucky can receive, if we are to believe Calipari’s timetable. His track record with explaining injuries and predicting returns is not great.

But even if Wallace is back in three days, losing him for a half against Vanderbilt was disastrous because it left Kentucky without an available point guard, and we saw how the Wildcats struggled without both Wallace and Wheeler to run the show. Antonio Reeves is not a point guard. He needs to be off of the ball. CJ Fredrick and Adou Thiero tried, but they’re too inexperienced at the position to take over in a tight SEC game.

On the other side, Vanderbilt was without its star player, Liam Robbins, too. One of the hottest players in the conference at 22 points and 10 rebounds per game in the seven games since Vanderbilt turned a corner, Robbins was billed as the biggest threat to Oscar Tshiebwe and Kentucky, but, unfortunately, he suffered a potential season-ending injury four minutes into the game and never returned.

So with Robbins out right away and Vanderbilt experimenting with a five-guard lineup without him, obviously Oscar Tshiebwe took a million shots in the paint, right? Wrong. Kentucky’s shot selection and field goal percentage were other disasters as the Wildcats shot 32 percent in the game with 20 field goal attempts coming from between the paint and the three-point line. 30 midrange jumpers on 59 total shots against a team playing reserve big men and a five-guard lineup. Kentucky had 18 offensive rebounds and still only took 10 shots at the rim. UK was cold from outside, too. Antonio Reeves hit four of 17 shots in the game.

A disaster.

How does Vanderbilt lose its star big man minutes into the game and get half the amount of offensive rebounds, and still take twice as many shots at the basket?

A 10-point home favorite on Senior Night needing only a win versus Vanderbilt to clinch the SEC Tournament’s No. 3 seed. A missed opportunity. Vandy’s first win in Rupp Arena since 2007. A disaster.

Senior Days trending the wrong way

More than one night, Kentucky’s Senior Days have not gone well in recent years before last night, which is frustrating on a broader scale. The great Corey Price noted the outrageous statistic that Kentucky has lost as many Senior Day games since 2020 as it did from 1965-2019.

Before 2020, the Wildcats went 52-3 on Senior Day. In the last four years, Kentucky is 1-3:

2020: Loss to Tennessee, 81-73

2021: Loss to Florida, 71-67 (Kentucky won a makeup game versus South Carolina in the home finale)

2022: Win vs Ole Miss, 83-72

2023: Loss to Vanderbilt, 68-66

The other three Senior Day losses were:

1997: Loss to #6 South Carolina, 72-66

2006: Loss to #17 Florida, 7964

2009: Loss to Georgia, 90-85 (Billy Gillispie’s last time in Rupp Arena)

Kentucky’s not supposed to lose on Senior Day, which is why last night was a disaster.

Now let’s put the disaster behind us with a fonder Senior Day memory: