Something is a little weird about this story. Calipari has said that Sharpe could have been the #1 pick in the draft next year if he stayed at Kentucky, yet he didn’t think he was good enough to play for the Wildcats in 21/22. If Sharpe was that incredibly good, couldn’t Calipari have used him this past season? And if Calipari didn’t want to use him this past season, what was the reason? Been doing a lot of research on this, and the gist of it seems to be that Sharpe “wasn’t ready” to play, according to Calipari. That could mean anything, but I’m wondering if it means Sharpe has a hard time playing team basketball, or he doesn’t understand defensive schemes. Calipari has been very cagey about the topic, and is clearly trying to be vague about it all, perhaps to protect Sharpe’s image. He claims he didn’t want to mess with the team chemistry by putting Sharpe in, but that also seems strange when the guy is the #1 high school recruit in the nation. Calipari also claims Sharpe had to “get his body ready,” which is kind of funny considering that Sharpe has always been a pretty impressive physical specimen, and is now jumping into the much more physical world of the NBA without out ever having played for Kentucky. This article explains about as much as I’ve been able to find on the subject: https://amp.kentucky.com/sports/college/kentucky-sports/uk-basketball-men/article258133413.html
He joined the Kentucky team late, in January, and his team advised him to take a redshirt year to learn the system and not force his way to play. He then decided to forgo staying with Kentucky and declared for the draft after seeing he'd be a lottery pick.
He was scheduled to graduate high school last month in 2022 and was the #1 proposect. He skipped part of his senior year, got an exemption to enter the draft, and practiced at Kentucky in January. He was not a full time full year member of Kentucky's basketball team. Think of him as a high school prospect that got to visit college.
It's funny, because people have red-shirt years all the time in college football, but this Sharpe thing is just blowing everyone's minds.
Yeah it's not considered a bigger deal in college football because you need to be a junior to declare for the NFL draft anyways. So usually you have at least two years of tape for NFL scouts.
So he didn’t graduate from high school? I thought you had to have a high school degree to play NCAA basketball.
Doing a lot of research and the conclusion you're coming to is Calipari didn't think he was ready or capable?
You saw it as well as you research then, I guess. Didn't delete anything in here. I imagine a mod could see deleted posts.
Not a lot of the story makes sense. Sharpe says he didn’t play for Kentucky because he was trying to get his body right so he could jump to the NBA. Calipari, on the other hand, said Sharpe was preparing to lead Kentucky in the 2022/23 season. https://www.si.com/nba/2022/06/25/t...harpe-explains-why-he-didnt-play-for-kentucky
It was @GoBlazersGo that deleted a post. RR7 has not deleted any posts in this thread. And for the record he has not paid me to delete any posts or to say he didn't delete any posts. But for $50 I will say he deleted 17 posts.
The guy probably never had any intention of playing there. If you want to fault him for that, go right ahead, but I don’t blame him one bit for not playing after he joined the team mid season and hadn’t played in a year. He was already a top 10 prospect and all he would have most likely done is hurt his draft stock. It was not a good situation. Trying to play with a new team, new system, and tons of expectations, completely on the fly.
I think it's safe to say his agent had something to do with his not playing knowing he was a lottery pick lock. Everybody wants a paycheck now, not a year from now
I'm not going to delete this post. It's just a hunch and purely speculation. My thinking is Sharpe is not a great student. He doesn't like school and doesn't want to be held accountable for studies on any subject. This was a roundabout way for him to get through high school and actually be on a team in college but never have to make the academic cut. He simply declared for the draft at his earliest possible chance. I know this is boring and isn't full of conspiracy theories. It's just a simple kid not being a great student.
Didn't your momma ever tell you, if don't have anything nice to say... don't make up conspiracy theories.