Sept 7 - Sharpe commits to UK
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Nov 9 - Sharpe announces he will enroll at UK in January
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Nov 18 - Calipari states that Sharpe unlikely to play "I don't think so...we'll see."
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Article also stated Sharpe's mentor Dwayne Washington said there was no chance Sharpe would play this season -
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Jan 6 - Sharpe enrolls at UK and begins practices
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Jan 7 - Calipari admits hiding his plan of Sharpe not playing from the public to keep the buzz going
“He’s a ways away from playing games,” Calipari said. “It may be a year from now. They all know. I talked to them.
We don’t have a plan for him to play this year. Maybe he does, but that is not the plan and never has been. Now I never said it because I wanted everybody to go crazy, all the other places. But the reality of it is we’ve never had a plan. If you ask me right now, my guess is he won’t play. But you don’t know what happens. We’ve had injury after injury, this happened, that happened, we’re down to 6, 7 guys. I may tell him ‘look, man, you’ve gotta go in 7 minutes a game. You’ve gotta play some.’ But my hope is we’re never there.”
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Jan 20 - Calipari teases Sharpe will play "if he's ready."
“He’s watching,” Calipari added. “Whether I play him or not this year, if he’s ready to be in games, I’ll put him in. He’s a great kid, and he’s doing well. And he’s going to make practices even better. He’s only been here two weeks. But, at the end of the day, you know I’m going to be for kids. That’s how I do this.”
It falls in line with what the UK head coach said about Sharpe last week, praising the five-star guard’s skill and shot-making ability, but adding that he’s still adjusting to the speed and pace of the college game.
“If he’s not ready to play, I would not put him out there,” Calipari said last week. “… You can’t do that to the kid — unless he’s ready.
If he’s ready, I say let’s go.
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Jan 20 - ESPN reports Sharpe eligible for 2022 draft
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Jan 22 - Dwayne Washington (Sharpe's mentor) says the NBA KNEW that Sharpe was eligible for the 2022 draft BEFORE he came to school, but he did not tell Calipari. But he also said he told Calipari that Sharpe would be back next year.
“It’s pretty idiotic. Everybody knew that this was an option, but we’re not taking it,” Washington told KSR. “He lost millions coming to school. He came to get better. … You come to get ready if you want to go to the NBA, which is one of the goals. You have to be ready. People don’t respect Calipari’s ability to develop enough, that’s why (Shaedon’s) there.
“He’s not there to sit on the bench and wave at fans. He’s coming back next year. If he doesn’t play this year, he’s coming back next year.”
“This is not new news to us. We knew about this before he came to school,” Washington told KSR. “This news is not news to anybody in the NBA. …
People just found out, but NBA people already knew.”
“I didn’t even tell Calipari,” Washington said. “Calipari was like, ‘Do you think he could do it?’ I said, ‘Honestly, it doesn’t matter, because he’s not going.’ He said, ‘OK, if you say so.’ Because everything I’ve said has happened.”
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Jan 22 - Auburn defeats UK 80-71
Calipari in postgame says, “I have told his parents that I am not going to put him in a position where he hurts himself. I am not. And we’re going to do this, the process of this, and
if he ends up playing this year because he’s capable of doing it and he can play, we’ll play him. But I’m not just shoving him in so we can win another game or stay closer. I’m not going to do that.”
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Jan 24 - Calipari teases possibility of Sharpe playing
"The last couple days he’s stepped on the gas a little bit and done some things," Calipari said. "I think our team would like me to put him in. We're doing stuff and something happens in practice, he does something, they all kind of look at me like, 'Come on now, If that's who he is, put him in.'"
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Feb 2 - UK defeats Vanderbilt 77-70. Sharpe does not play and has not played a minute.
Summary:
Calipari stated flatly that he withheld the fact that he did not intend to play Sharpe so that he could create buzz around him. Since then he has said, numerous times, that he a) is not ready and b) will play if he's ready and c) he will not play the 'kid' if it hurts his draft status. He has even said all three things in the same interview.
It's very likely that Calipari continues to tease because this continues to create buzz around Sharpe and keep fans interested. This is like a game to him. It's likely because he already admitted doing it.
Dwayne Washington stated that everybody except Calipari knew that Sharpe would be eligible for the draft THIS YEAR. In fact, he did NOT state that Calipari didn't know - he stated that he himself did not TELL Calipari. That doesn't mean Calipari didn't know. In fact, if Calipari DID know before the season and let him join this year anyway, that might have created bad press. So Washington's statement is a bit of cover for Calipari. He also stated Sharpe will play at UK next year. Who knows if any of it is true.
So we're to BELIEVE that EVERYBODY EXCEPT CALIPARI knew that Sharpe was eligible for the draft BEFORE the season.
The one fact that is undisputed is that Sharpe continues to sit.
