No. 6 Kentucky without point guard Ashton Hagans at Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — No. 6 Kentucky will be without starting point guard Ashton Hagans at Florida on Saturday.
Coach John Calipari made the announcement on Twitter about an hour before tipoff.
“Ashton did not make the trip with us to Florida,” Calipari posted. “He and I met a couple days ago and he asked to step away for a couple days for personal reasons. I support his decision. We are going to need him at 100% for the postseason.”
On Tuesday night, Hagans and Calipari argued on the bench during Kentucky’s 81-73 home loss to Tennessee. Hagans reportedly refused to enter the game.
Calipari tried to shoot that down any controversy on Friday.
“Look, I’ve done this before: There are sometimes I’ll go to a guy and ask him, ‘Do you want to go in?’ If he says, ‘No,’ I say, ‘OK.’ We move on,” Calipari said. “Some of it’s late-game stuff because I had to sit there when I played and there’s 25 seconds left in the game and you go, ‘OK, go in and get that guy.’
“We’ve got a young team that’s growing and learning and learn from every situation.”
Hagans, a sophomore from Cartersville, Georgia, is averaging 11.5 points and leads the team in assists and steals.
The Wildcats (24-6, 14-3 Southeastern Conference) have already clinched the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament.
