Sahvir Wheeler makes his triumphant return. Can he be Mr. Efficient for Kentucky?
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Game day: No. 4 Kentucky 77, Duquesne 52
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Friday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Duquesne in Rupp Arena.
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It didn’t take long for Sahvir Wheeler to put his stamp on this Kentucky basketball season.
After missing a chunk of the preseason and most of the Wildcats’ exhibition schedule with a knee injury that also kept him out of the team’s opener Monday night, the UK point guard was back on the court Friday against Duquesne.
Very little went wrong in his return.
Wheeler came off the bench in the Cats’ 77-52 victory, checking in a little more than five minutes into the game and making an immediate impact in his first real action since UK’s stunning loss to Saint Peter’s in the NCAA Tournament eight months ago.
That upset in March served as a microcosm for Wheeler’s first season as a Wildcat.
On one hand, he made a flurry of plays to keep the Cats in the game, seemingly putting them over the top and on their way to victory. On the other, there were miscues down the stretch that punctuated the team’s meltdown in the final minutes.
On Friday night, there was a whole lot of the former, not much of the latter, and the Cats were clearly at their best with him in the game.
Wheeler finished with 11 points, 11 assists and six rebounds in 27 minutes on the court. UK outscored Duquesne by 32 points with him in the game — by far the highest plus-minus differential on the team — and the floor seemed much more open when the Cats had the ball and he was out there.
“It was a lot of fun,” Wheeler said. “I was happy to play basketball again.”
That was clear.
A minute after he checked in — the Cats up by just one point — he grabbed a defensive rebound, took it the length of the floor, and hit Ugonna Onyenso with an assist. Fourteen seconds later, another assist. Forty-four seconds after that, another assist. Then two made free throws. Then a driving layup. And then John Calipari took him out for a little rest.
On the way back to the UK bench, Wheeler was stopped by his head coach. Calipari gave him a hug.
“Sahvir did well,” he said afterward. “He played more minutes than I wanted to play him.”
Calipari said in his pregame radio interview that Wheeler had just returned to practice the previous day. He expected to play him 10 or 12, maybe 15, minutes against Duquesne. He ended up playing 27. And it could’ve been more. At one point, Wheeler asked the coach to sub him out.
“I felt a little out of breath,” he said. “I haven’t felt out of breath in a long time.”
Wheeler said he was used to the team’s preseason scrimmages, where stoppages in play are more frequent. He was used to the offseason pickup games with teammates. Not much defense being played there, Wheeler acknowledged.
He had forgotten how fast the Cats play once the real games begin.
“Yo, we’re playing fast,” he thought to himself Friday night. “This is a fast brand of basketball.”
The speedy guard played 31.2 minutes per game last season. When’s the last time he asked for a sub?
“Taking myself out? Man. Never,” he said. “I’ve never done that. Never.”
In the first half, Wheeler helped the Cats turn a one-point deficit into a double-digit lead. In the opening minutes of the second half, he came off the bench again, helping turn a dwindling advantage into an insurmountable one. The Dukes’ defense simply had nothing for Wheeler, who penetrated the perimeter at will, spreading the floor and kicking to open teammates.
“We knew that if we didn’t guard the ball, we were gonna have problems,” Duquesne Coach Keith Dambrot said. “We did a poor job of guarding the ball, but that’s a tribute to him. He’s a strong, tough little guy that gets to where he wants to get. And then shares the ball. That was probably the key to the game — we just didn’t guard the ball very well.”
Wheeler wasn’t sidelined long, but he didn’t need much time on the bench to learn something about his teammates. He watched his fellow Cats closely Monday night, particularly the team’s two leading scorers — Antonio Reeves and CJ Fredrick — the duo that led UK in points once again Friday.
Following this victory, Wheeler broke down what he’d learned, offering an exact assessment of where Fredrick and Reeves like to be on the court, where they run in transition, where they’re most comfortable getting the ball, and what they can do with it from certain spots. He hit Fredrick for two threes Friday night, Reeves for another.
On the defensive end, Wheeler was just as much of a pest as always, picking up ball-handlers in the backcourt and getting into them all the way down the floor. He spoke excitedly about finally teaming up with freshman Cason Wallace after battling against him all preseason.
“We’re probably two of the premier, elite on-ball defenders in the country,” he said.
Wheeler has proven he can hit tough shots, make difficult passes and frustrate opposing guards. The next step in his game is to become a more efficient player. That’s a word — “efficient” — that he used numerous times throughout the preseason. It’s something his coaches have challenged him to be throughout the offseason leading into his senior year.
“When we talk about winning basketball, it’s his floor game being efficient. His thinking being efficient. His assist-to-turnover being more efficient,” UK assistant Orlando Antigua said over the weekend. “That’s what we talk about with Sahvir. And when you have a senior guard that’s had the experience that he’s had — that’s what you look for from him.”
And that’s what he says he’s looking for in himself.
Wheeler played two years at Georgia — the first as a freshman alongside No. 1 draft pick Anthony Edwards, the second feeling like he had to do pretty much everything himself — and the Bulldogs weren’t that good either season. He came to Kentucky last year with more help around him but often still forced bad shots and tried to make passes that weren’t there.
He acknowledged all of that this preseason. Everything might’ve seemed fast Friday night, but he says the game itself is moving more slowly for him than it ever has.
When Wheeler talks about being more efficient — as he has in seemingly every interview since the summer — that isn’t just making more shots or shooting better ones. It isn’t simply making the right plays every time he has the ball in his hands.
“I think that’s everything,” he said Friday night. “I’m not sure what the stats were today, but I feel like I played a pretty clean, efficient game. And that’s what I’m looking to do. Keep it clean. Keep it efficient. And get my teammates in spots where they can be successful.”
There were miscues Friday, too, but they were few. One wild pass that went into the first row. One of those circus shots at the basket that was so common last season (though this one went in). Wheeler finished 4-for-7 from the floor, 1-for-2 from deep and committed just two turnovers alongside those 11 assists.
Calipari will surely take that stat line every night.
Next game
No. 4 Kentucky vs. Michigan State
What: Champions Classic
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis
TV: ESPN
This story was originally published November 11, 2022 at 11:40 PM.
