After receiving welcome gift, basketball Cats hope they can go ahead and open it
Raise your hand if before last week you had heard of Olivier Sarr.
Those with hands in the air, congratulations. You’re basketball junkies. Those with hands down, no big deal, chances are few outside the Atlantic Coast Conference in general and Winston-Salem in particular had heard of the 7-foot center from Toulouse, France.
Until now that is. Until the former Wake Forest Demon Deacon announced on Instagram on Wednesday he will play his final year of college basketball as a Kentucky Wildcat.
Big Blue Nation hopes that means immediately. Caught short-handed thanks to the dual NBA Draft (they hope) departures of Nick Richards and EJ Montgomery, John Calipari’s Cats are in desperate need of filling their low-post hole. But Sarr needs an NCAA waiver to avoid sitting out his transfer year.
Waiver granted, and a Kentucky team that had slipped down the too-early-rankings for next season — losing Richards, Montgomery, Immanuel Quickley, Tyrese Maxey and Ashton Hagans will do that to even the best of programs — will climb right back up the flagpole.
Why? UK grad Les Johns is publisher of the Demon Deacon Digest for 247Sports and hosts the “More With Les” podcast. After I asked for the scoop on Sarr, Les sent this:
“Sarr arrived at Wake Forest as a thin European-style face-up big, but dramatically transformed his overall game his three years in Winston-Salem. Former Wake Forest coach Danny Manning is skilled at developing post players, and Sarr has added 40 pounds of muscle and a vast array of low-post moves to his arsenal. He’s quick down the court, has a soft touch around the basket and is solid from 15 feet out. He’s the complete package and will plug-and-play easily in Calipari’s offense.”
As a freshman, Sarr averaged just 3.2 points and three rebounds in 15.1 minutes per game. He improved to 6.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 21.6 minutes as a sophomore. Last year, he averaged 13.7 points and nine rebounds in 26.7 minutes.
Plus, Sarr appeared to be peaking just as the coronavirus pandemic pulled the basketball plug. He scored 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in Wake’s 81-72 ACC Tournament loss to Pittsburgh. Before that, he had 12 points and 10 rebounds in a 10-point loss at North Carolina, 30 points and 17 rebounds in a win over Notre Dame, and 25 points in a double-overtime win over Duke. Over his final five games as a Deacon, Sarr averaged 20.6 points and 10.8 rebounds.
Unfortunately, Wake finished 6-14 in the ACC, 13-18 overall. That left Manning 78-111 for his six seasons. And Wake Forest AD John Currie decided six was enough. Out went Manning. In came former East Tennessee State coach Steve Forbes.
Forbes is a good coach, as his 130-43 record in five years at ETSU attests. He’s also a good talker. The former Bruce Pearl assistant says what he thinks. He angered Big Blue Nation with his “Why would you want to go to Wake for three years, put all that time in for a prestigious degree, and end up getting your degree at a place like Kentucky?” comment about Sarr but that wasn’t so much a deliberate shot at UK as an I’m-with-you-pledge to the Deacon faithful. Even without Sarr, Forbes will make Wake relevant again.
Will Sarr make Kentucky great again? The answer could be put on hold. He’s not a graduate transfer, a la Nate Sestina last season or Reid Travis the season before. He’ll need that NCAA waiver to play in 2020-21, provided there is a 2020-21 season. Manning’s firing may play on the NCAA’s sympathies, but the transfer committee has been more likely to accept that reasoning with freshmen than with players who have already spent three years at an institution.
Still, there’s no doubt the European import is an excellent addition, no matter when he is allowed on the court. These days, big men are hard to find. And keep.
