Kentucky's top player nursing injured foot heading into tourney
JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — As the Kentucky Wildcats went through a casual shoot-around the day before their opening game of the NCAA tournament, complete with a blaring band and thousands of blueclad fans watching every move, something was missing. Their best player. PJ Washington, a rare sophomore amid John Calipari's latest batch of fabulous freshmen, sprained his left foot in Kentucky's loss to Tennessee at the Southeastern Conference tournament last weekend.
Washington didn't travel with the team to Jacksonville and missed their final workout for the opener against Abilene Christian. He was scheduled to arrive later Wednesday after seeing a foot specialist.
Calipari insisted it was nothing serious, really just an annoyance for the secondseeded Wildcats (27-6).
“If you know me, I'm like, `Wait a minute, let's go get one more level of this,'” the coach said. “We sent him to the specialist to make sure he can't harm himself. But we expect him to play.”
Washington, who broke from the usual bluegrass protocol by sticking around for a second season, leads Kentucky in scoring (14.8 points per game) and rebounding (7.6).
But, with plenty of talent around him, it's probably not imperative that he play against Abilene Christian, the No. 15 seed from the Southland Conference. — before winning the Southern Conference tournament. They arrived in Jacksonville riding a 20-game winning streak and boasting the highest seed ever for a team from their midmajor league. how it is when you play here.”
This is the first time in 15 seasons that Kansas will come into the tournament without winning the regular-season conference championship. Injuries, absences and inexperience — to say nothing of the FBI investigation into corruption in college hoops that has included its fair share of Kansas connections — have turned this into one of the rockiest seasons in Self's 16 years at the school.
But the coach still has dreams for the Jayhawks, and he's not afraid to share them.
“I think we're capable of doing some great things in this tournament,” he said.