Jarred Vanderbilt injury update

Jarred Vanderbilt is officially out for the Kentucky Wildcats when they face the Georgia Bulldogs.

During UK’s pregame radio show, head coach John Calipari announced that Vanderbilt will not play today. That was expected based on how pessimistic Calipari sounded about his star freshman during his Thursday meeting with the media.

While Calipari didn’t rule Vanderbilt out for the entire SEC Tournament, that’s the expectation, even if UK manages to make it to Sunday’s SEC title game. Calipari wouldn’t even say if Vanderbilt would return for the NCAA Tournament.

“He’s gotta make that decision, and last time it took time to do it, but it’s not going to be me making it. It’ll be him,” said Calipari.

According to SEC Country’s Kyle Tucker, Vanderbilt’s ankle is still pretty swollen, so again, don’t expect him to play in St. Louis.

With Vanderbilt out, that means Wenyen Gabriel, Sacha Killeya-Jones and Nick Richards must step their games up, or else the Cats may be one and done in St. Louis.Those three have seen their playing time decrease with the emergence of Vanderbilt, so all three need to step up in a big way against Georgia’s monster front line.

PJ Washington is also going to have to take on a bigger role in the rebounding department. He’s grabbed less than six rebounds in four of his last six games, though he did have seven in last Saturday’s loss at Florida.

If UK wins today, they’ll face the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday, but getting by Georgia will be no easy task.