Report: Jarred Vanderbilt unlikely to play in SEC Tournament championship game
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Kentucky has won two SEC Tournament games without Jarred Vanderbilt already. To win the tournament championship, the Wildcats will have to make it three.
According to Chase Campbell of the Kentucky Kernel, Vanderbilt is out on the court in street clothes during warmups prior to tipoff against Tennessee.
The star freshman did not play in UK’s wins over Georgia or Alabama. Following the win over UGA, Wildcats coach John Calipari explained that Vanderbilt is the type of player to want to play, but the coach needs to see him closer to 100 percent.
“Jarred, what I saw today, will not play tomorrow (vs Alabama),” Calipari said. “He’s still limping. I told him as soon as you can jump up and grab the rim with two hands, come on over and talk to me. But here’s a kid that, ‘coach, I can play through this pain. I can do this.’
“Look, at this time of year for everyone here, you can’t play with anybody that’s at 80 percent. You can’t. You can’t because the games are at too high level and you just play too hard. So we’re just seeing. We’ve got time, but learning to play without him was a big part of today.”
The Wildcats and Volunteers tipoff in St. Louis at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Jarred Vanderbilt is on the UK bench today in street clothes, not warming up with the team. Likely will not be available for today’s game.
— Chase Campbell (@chasemckinley16) March 11, 2018
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
