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John Calipari: Shaedon Sharpe plans on returning to Kentucky instead of entering draft

LEXINGTON - Skeptics may have viewed Thursday's news that Kentucky basketball freshman Shaedon Sharpe was likely eligible for the 2022 NBA draft as a sign his UK career would end before it started, but John Calipari says that is not necessarily the case.

"It doesn’t change anything," Kentucky's coach said Friday. "... He plans on being here next year."

ESPN reported Thursday that Sharpe was in fact eligible to apply for early entry into the NBA draft despite an earlier report from the website last year that he was not. Sharpe satisfies the NBA's age requirement (that a player turn 19 in the year of the draft), but there was some question about whether he satisfied the second requirement that a player be a year removed from his high school graduation.