John Calipari shares latest on Ashton Hagans ahead of SEC tournament
By SDS Staff
Published:
Ashton Hagans is back with the Kentucky Wildcats.
UK basketball head coach John Calipari confirmed Hagans’ return in an interview with WVLK’s Larry Glover. Hagans did not make the trip to Gainesville, Florida for UK’s regular-season finale at UF on Saturday.
Hagans’ absence from the team coincided with a video of him showing off a large wad of cash going viral on social media. While Kentucky did not issue a public statement on the matter, Tim Sullivan of the Courier-Journal got responses from a UK spokesperson who downplayed any controversies, saying the video is “not recent or even the last few months” and that the “red flag” has already been addressed by the compliance department.
Glover tweeted about his interview with Calipari, sharing that the Wildcats head coach said he has not seen the video. Calipari also told Glover that Hagans’ absence in the season finale was not related to the video. The Saturday announcement of Hagans’ absence came from Calipari on Twitter, with the coach stating, “Ashton did not make the trip with us to Florida. He and I met a couple days ago and he asked to step away for a couple days for personal reasons. I support his decision. We are going to need him at 100% for the postseason.”
Kentucky is set to first play on Friday in Game 7 of the SEC tournament, which is set for a 1 p.m. ET tip on ESPN.
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
