This season was already teetering on the brink of disaster for John Calipari and Kentucky, and that was before one of his players decided he needed an armed bodyguard.
Tai Wynyard, a redshirt sophomore who has only played in eight games this season because of a back injury, has been suspended from the team, SEC Country reported Tuesday night. Just before the Wildcats lost for the fourth time in seven games, the news on Wynyard got worse. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that campus fraternity and sorority members had warned one another through a group messaging app that Wynyard was attending parties with an armed bodyguard.
“There is a [person] showing up to parties with the basketball player Tai Wynyard,” the message from the app Group Me said, according to the Courier-Journal. “[The person] showed up last night to our rush party and … had a gun … said he was ‘protecting’ Wynyard. … If you go out tonight and see [person] DO NOT APPROACH [person]. Share this to EVERY SISTER.”
Calipari addressed Wynyard’s situation after the loss Tuesday night to Tennessee.
“He violated team rules,” Calipari said. “He has — the back. He is out because of a back, but he’s now been suspended because of violating team rules and that’s all I’ll say.”
Wynyard, who is from New Zealand, has played a total of 97 minutes in 23 games for Kentucky over the past two seasons, never finding a consistent place in the rotation. He was the No. 89 player in the country in the Class of 2015, but that made him seventh out of seven in a Kentucky recruiting class that included Jamal Murray and Skal Labissiere.
His absence doesn’t affect the on-court product for the Wildcats, but it is another weird storyline in what is devolving into a problematic season for Calipari and the Wildcats. They are now 17-7 this season, including 6-5 in the SEC, and almost certain to drop out of the next AP top 25 poll.
A couple of the team’s top players are also trending in the wrong direction. Hamidou Diallo, a redshirt freshman and potential lottery pick, has scored a total of 10 points in the past three games and played only 13 minutes against Tennessee. Kevin Knox, the team’s other best bet to end up a lottery pick, has been held to 10 points or fewer five times in SEC games, including the past two.
The SEC is significantly deeper this season than it has been in several years, and there are several tough games left on Kentucky’s schedule. Missing the NCAA Tournament for the second time in Calipari’s nine years is no longer a crazy suggestion. The Wildcats have never finished with more than six losses in league play and never finished below a tie for second place during Calipari’s tenure. Both of those benchmarks are in jeopardy.
Of course, the losses on the court could be a secondary worry at this point if one of Calipari’s players feels the need to walk around campus with an armed bodyguard.