Before we close the book on the 2022-2023 Kentucky basketball season I think it’s important that we look back at the team and how they performed and what we can look forward to from them in 2023-2024.
We’ve already taken a look at Oscar and Toppin so we’ll take a look at Cason Wallace today.
Season Review
Cason came in as a top 10 recruit in the country who was hailed as a defensive stopper with elite upside on the offensive end. I personally watched Cason play close to 30 games combined in HS and AAU down here in Texas and the physical gifts were impressive, but his offensive game was raw. His development hit over-drive at Kentucky as he went from being an off-ball combo guard in HS/AAU to suddenly being forced into being the primary PG for an SEC team. Cason started the year with Wheeler and we saw flashes of his secondary play-making and his ability to score and his shooting had taken a massive a jump from his HS days. Unfortunately it became obvious that Kentucky needed the ball to be in Cason’s hands for it to be the best version of itself and that required Cason to sacrifice his production.
His shooting specifically tailed off as he just shot 24% from three in SEC play (for the season he still shot a decent 35% from 3). He became less of a scorer and had to learn to run an offense on the fly while also having to guard the other teams opposing ball handler and for the last quarter of the season he had no real back-up to rest him either. The mental and physical fatigue took a toll on him and by the end of the year he was playing through back, knee, and ankle issues.
Despite that Cason made several winning plays on both ends of the floor and he was able to keep Kentucky’s offense steady through major injuries and some serious roster flaws. He probably wasn’t even 80% (certainly didn’t look it) after the injury against Vanderbilt on Senior Night but Wallace gritted it out trying to give Kentucky the best possible chance.
Season Highlight
Cason’s best moment was probably the Michigan game in London. Kentucky absolutely had to have that win after losing to Michigan State and Gonzaga and Wallace did a little bit of everything. He played good defense, hit timely threes, grabbed 8 rebounds, and dished out 5 assists.
Honorable mention is probably the performance against Mississippi State. He had an off night shooting the ball, but he controlled the Kentucky offense and dished out 11 assists with only one turnover against a top 10 defense. It was also a game where Kentucky was reeling after losing to Arkansas and Georgia and were once again fighting for their tournament life and they went on the road against an equally desperate team and got the season back on track.
Season Lowlight
The injuries. All of them. Kentucky fans were robbed of seeing Cason at his best due to the absolute awful luck this team had with injuries including to Cason himself. His injuries against South Carolina and Vanderbilt at home cost Kentucky both games and likely cost Kentucky at least one seed line and he was clearly hobbled during the tournament.
Fully healthy Cason would have been surrounded with 2 high level shooters, the best rebounder CBB has seen in the last half-century, and an above average 4 man who shot 40%+ from three in conference play and he also would have had an actual PG that would have rested him or allowed him to play off-ball at times. Instead, he was forced to play 35+ minutes a game as the primary ball-handler with just one other good shooter and teams realized they could beat him all to hell (on re-watch K-State absolutely mauled him on every possession knowing his size would be a problem) with no consequences.
2023-2024 Outlook
I’d be shocked if Cason returned to Kentucky, nor should he. Most mock drafts have him as a lottery pick and that is before the combine/individual work-outs where there is no doubt he’ll look like a stud. If you try hard enough you could make the argument that the 2024 Draft class is historically weak (according to the experts) and that Cason returning and developing could vault him into top 5 status, but that is wishful thinking. It’s also probably unwise considering all the injuries that he battled this year. Cason should go and BBN will be behind him.
Read: 6 Things Slowly Killing College Basketball
Read: End of Season Grades For Kentucky
Read: 14 Reasons Cal Needs To Go
Read: Tyler Ulis Making An Impression At Kentucky
