P.J. Washington makes Kentucky, Kentucky. Now, can he make the ‘Cats a Final Four team?
By Joe Cox
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In the end, Kentucky wasn’t Kentucky without P.J. Washington.
Sure, the Wildcats won their first two NCAA Tournament games without the versatile sophomore forward, who sprained his left foot in UK’s SEC Tournament semifinal loss to Tennessee. The Wildcats had scratched and clawed their way past a feisty Wofford squad in the round of 32 via a 62-56 grinder of a win. But the questions remained all week — could Washington play? If he could play, how much and how well could he play?
Apparently, Washington, whose leg cast was removed Tuesday, tried to full-on sprint on Friday morning — and couldn’t. He missed UK’s shoot-around and was a game-time decision. On Thursday, John Calipari told the media, “If he doesn’t play at all, I would not be surprised.” He also intimated that he would be “stunned” and “surprised” if Washington could play more than 15-18 minutes.
Washington played 26 minutes Friday night. His presence gave Kentucky an immediate lift, and then sustained the Wildcats in the pivotal moments of a win over Houston that was very much in doubt. Washington had some post-season ghosts to exorcise.
As a freshman, Washington had been at the center of a UK Sweet 16 matchup against a Kansas State team that played not at all unlike the 2019 Houston squad. Kentucky lost that 2018 game 61-58 in large part because Washington, who did have 18 points and 15 rebounds, could not connect on free throws, going a horrifying 8-for-20 at the foul line in the close loss.
In 2019, when Kentucky was on the ropes, Washington, even on a painful foot, came up big. With the Wildcats down 3 and a minute to play, Washington connected on a jump-hook “and one” for his 15th and 16th points of the game. While he missed the free throw, he followed up with a crucial blocked shot that set the stage for Tyler Herro’s game-winning basket.
“We don’t win the game without him,” John Calipari said of Washington minutes after the sophomore forward erased some of those bad memories from 2018 with his clutch plays against Houston.
Another postgame question asked Washington if his missed free throw reminded him of 2018.
“I’m a different player from last year,” he said.
Washington has been a different player — an all-SEC player, the offensive cog through which Kentucky best executes. The question now is, having defied that injury foot once, can he do it again?
Perhaps Kentucky’s most impressive performance of the season was an 80-53 win over Auburn in Lexington on Feb. 23. It was an important game for both teams, as the low point ultimately keyed Auburn to refocus and emerge on the run that has become an 11-game winning streak and the school’s second Elite Eight berth.
But in that game, Washington, who generally works best as a post-up scorer and a scrapper down low, drilled 5-of-8 3-point tries. Washington had made 5 3s in his entire freshman season. He had 24 points in that game, and with Auburn lacking big man Chuma Okeke after a season-ending injury on Friday, Washington might have opportunities to score early and often Sunday afternoon.
With his entire season, Washington has backed up his post-game comment that he is indeed a different player than he was last March. Is he different enough to lead the Wildcats to their first Final Four since 2015? The path certainly looks more plausible with Washington than it did a week ago without him.
Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.
