Tshiebwe Likely Out for Regular Season Opener, Wheeler's Status Uncertain, Calipari Says

The Wildcats may be without a pair of key starters on Monday night against Howard

Exhibitions are officially over for Kentucky basketball. 

The Wildcats capped off their preseason on Thursday night, steamrolling Kentucky State 111-53 inside Rupp Arena. Now, the attention turns to the regular season opener on Nov. 7 against the Howard Bison. 

Unfortunately for UK, it'll likely be without two key pieces when it kicks off its 2022 campaign on Monday night. 

Preseason All-American center Oscar Tshiebwe, preseason First Team All-SEC point guard Sahvir Wheeler were both unavailable to play against the Thorobreds in the final exhibition tune-up.

Tshiebwe did not participate in either Big Blue Madness, the Blue-White Scrimmage or UK's first exhibition against Missouri Western State last Sunday. On Oct. 11, Head coach John Calipari announced via Twitter that the reigning unanimous National Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe was set to undergo a "minor 15-minute" procedure on his knee to "clean some things up."

Against Missouri Western State, Wheeler went down with a knee injury midway through the second half, requiring him to leave the remainder of the game. 

Both players missed Thursday night's game against KSU, and head coach John Calipari isn't sure he'll have either one in the lineup against Howard in three days:

“I would be stunned if he played Monday,” Calipari said of Tshiebwe. “I would be somewhat surprised if he played Friday.”

Tshiebwe's timetable has never been clear, though it was thought he may be available upon the beginning of the regular season. 

“He’s just not normal. If he wanted to play Monday, I probably wouldn’t let him. He needs a few more days," Calipari said. "If he wants to play Friday, I’m gonna have to work him out myself and see, and if I did, he’d probably play 10 or 15 minutes just to get his legs under him.”

As for Wheeler, Calipari remains unsure on the point guard's status: 

“Sahvir, I don’t know. He was there. He was walking around, but you can’t just say, well I’ll play Monday. You gotta practice to make sure you can do this.”

The Wildcats may remain down two starters to open the 2022 campaign.