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The Kentucky Wildcats took down the Wofford Terriers in the second round and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the 8th time in 10 years under John Calipari.
Unfortunately, the Cats are without their leading scorer in PJ Washington, who came back for his sophomore season because he wanted to win a championship.
We all know how tough it must be for PJ to sit out and not be out there with his brothers. However, the team knows that they aren’t only playing for themselves.
They are playing for PJ.
In the matchup with Wofford, Tyler Herro helped lead the Cats to victory with his outstanding defensive performance in locking up Fletcher Magee, holding him to 0/12 from three.
Just two days prior, Magee set the NCAA all-time record for most three pointers made and was shooting well over 40% on the season. So, for Herro to lock him up like he did is more than deserving of praise, despite his offense being off.
Herro knew what was on the line, and he kept a reminder on his wrist of just who they were fighting for and that was PJ Washington. He had tape on his wrist with the number “25” written on it.
PJ Washington wasn't playing but Tyler Herro had the big man's 25 written on his wrist as #Kentucky beats a scrappy Wofford to advance to the #SweetSixteen #bbn Photos: https://t.co/jNs3qyvSbx pic.twitter.com/uqBpMDsWWE
— Matt Stone (@mattstonephotog) March 23, 2019
“He wants to get back out on the floor, so the longer we play, hopefully he’ll be back,” said Herro after the win. He’s one of our brothers. Just obviously, play for him”
On Friday, Kentucky assistant coach Kenny Payne said that they were trying to win this weekend to buy PJ some more time to get healed up so he can return to the court.
The team knew that they were trying to survive this weekend for PJ, and they went out there and took care of business. Now hopefully PJ will be able to return to action next weekend in Kansas City as the Cats try to make it to the Final Four.