It’s one of the biggest questions for this Kentucky team. Where is Justin Edwards?

The most lopsided loss of Kentucky’s basketball season came Tuesday night, and it was accompanied by yet another example of one of this team’s most perplexing questions.

What’s going on with Justin Edwards?

The 6-foot-8 freshman spent the final year or so of his high school career in the thick of the conversation for the No. 1 recruit in his class. He arrived in Lexington over the summer in the discussion for the No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft.

And yet, now more than halfway through the regular season, he’s often been an afterthought for this Wildcats team.

Case in point, Kentucky’s 79-62 loss at South Carolina on Tuesday night.

Edwards’ final stat line: two points, two rebounds, no assists, no blocks, no steals in 23 minutes. He took just one shot from the field — a forced drive at the basket — and he missed it. The performance tied a season low in both points and rebounds, but it wasn’t much of an outlier in Edwards’ underwhelming first year of college basketball.

The loss to the Gamecocks marked the seventh consecutive game — and the ninth time in UK’s past 10 outings — that he has failed to reach double figures in scoring. It was the fourth time in the past six games that he grabbed just two rebounds, and it’s now been more than a month since he ended up with more than four boards in a game. He hasn’t had more than two assists in any of his 18 college appearances. He has one blocked shot in his past 10 games.

Many Kentucky fans probably came into this season with outsized and unrealistic expectations for the star recruit. Big scoring nights weren’t expected to be his forte. His value — billed as arguably the highest-floor prospect in the 2023 recruiting class — was projected to be his all-around game. The expectation out of high school was that Edwards would be able to do a little bit of everything. Whatever the Wildcats needed on a given night, he’d be there to provide it.

And perhaps that’s been the most perplexing part of his college career to this point. This Kentucky team has proven time and again that they don’t need a big offensive night from Edwards (or any one specific player) to light up the scoreboard. There are plenty of guys who can get buckets on this squad. That, seemingly, makes this the perfect situation for Edwards to show his stuff. Yet, he’s struggled mightily, in pretty much all facets of the game.

During John Calipari’s radio show last week — two days after UK’s 97-92 overtime loss at Texas A&M — a caller wondered aloud where Edwards had been.

“He had his best game by far,” Calipari said of the performance against the Aggies.

In that one, Edwards tallied eight points and four rebounds — going 2-for-2 on 3-pointers — in 22 minutes on the court. It was one of his better showings, yes, but still a long way from what was expected coming into the season. Calipari knows as much. While talking about Edwards, the UK coach went a little deeper into what he sees as his role as a shaper of star recruits.

“Before you leave me, my job is to make sure you understand what it means to be a great teammate,” he said. “That you understand that you have to be your biggest cheerleader. And if your spirit — or your attitude — is not right, that is no one’s fault but yours. Not mine. Not a teammate. Not an opponent. You have to get your mind right.”

This has been a theme of Edwards’ season, as Calipari sees it.

The five-star recruit is admittedly his own worst critic, always hard on himself, consistently expecting more, often to his own detriment. It hasn’t taken long for Calipari to notice.

“He — and I told all these guys — if you’re judging your game on making baskets, that means 45, 65% of the time, you’re gonna be down. You can’t,” he said. “You gotta be your biggest cheerleader. You gotta be the guy — and then, you gotta do the easy stuff really well. And not try to go crazy. Because now you turn it over, and you’re not mentally there yet to where you can withstand that. And that’s why people saw some of the stuff from Justin. And we’ve been working on it. He’s been working on it.”

Finding Justin Edwards

Calipari said he gave Edwards a book — “The One Truth” by Jon Gordon — that he hoped would help the struggling freshman clear his mind and open up his game. Kentucky’s coach knows there will always be negative thoughts, on and off the basketball court, but he’s trying to get his young player to turn the page more quickly, almost always easier said than done.

He said last week that he was seeing progress.

“I am so proud of him, because of what he’s overcoming, which is the anxiety of, ‘I’m supposed to be this.’ You can’t live with comparisons. You can’t be judgmental of yourself. You can’t,” Calipari said. “You can’t compare yourself to Robert Dillingham shooting stepback 3s. You’re a different player. He can’t do what you do. But you can’t do what he does. That’s OK. Just be your best. Make easy plays. Make open (shots).”

Calipari went on to say that Edwards is a terrific shooter in UK’s practices. He then pointed to the game before Texas A&M — a victory over Missouri four days earlier — where Edwards shot a corner 3-pointer that hit the side of the backboard.

“And his head went down, and his spirit dropped,” he said. “I had to take him out! Not because of the missed shot. And you know what? I see him now, and I want to hug him and tell him how much I love him, because he is working through it. Not me building him up. He’s working his way through it. And I’m gonna tell you, we don’t have anybody working harder now.”

In Edwards’ three games since that Texas A&M loss, he’s averaged 3.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and experienced some of the same defensive shortcomings that have hindered him all season.

His 23 minutes against South Carolina were actually the most Edwards has played in more than a month. He averaged 27.7 minutes over Kentucky’s first eight games. In the 10 games since, he’s averaged 18.3 minutes, Calipari clearly willing to redistribute some of his time while also keeping him in the starting lineup in hopes that he finds that breakthrough.

Kentucky’s other coaches have also been publicly realigning the expectations around Edwards.

“I think you guys look at Justin differently than we do,” UK assistant Bruiser Flint said recently. “I always tell him — and he doesn’t know what this means — but I always tell him, ‘You’re a Swiss Army knife. You can do a little bit of everything. That doesn’t mean you have to score 20. Your play is great in your versatility.’”

Flint said the coaching staff got on Edwards about his defense early in the season. After that, they saw some improvements. The veteran coach echoed Calipari in saying that he doesn’t want to see scoring from Edwards, but bigger rebounding and passing numbers and more consistency on defense. Diving on the floor, chasing loose balls, running the floor …

“I think that’s what he’s good at,” Flint agreed. “Like I said, his versatility is what makes him good. … I think when you look at his box score and he’s getting 10-12 points, 5-6 rebounds, 3-4 assists and you see him make plays diving on the floor — that’s what makes Justin who he is.”

Edwards and the NBA draft

Edwards has still yet to show that side of himself, however. His NBA draft stock has taken a substantial hit, as a result. It’s been only a couple of months since he was considered the possible No. 1 pick in this year’s draft. He’s now No. 28 on ESPN’s latest list of the top NBA prospects, and the most recent mock draft from that site had him at No. 31 — not even in the first round. Recent mock drafts from Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report also didn’t include him among the 30 first-round picks.

ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony noted Edwards’ age — he turned 20 years old last month, making him older than some college sophomores on the draft boards — as another strike.

“He’s struggled to consistently make wide-open 3s, generate offense for himself or others, or be any kind of defensive stopper, looking sped up and limited on both ends,” Givony said in his latest mock draft. “Considering he’s already 20 years old and older than many sophomores, scouts will want to see considerably more in the second half of the season to feel comfortable with him as a first-round pick, let alone where we had him to start the season.”

For Edwards to steady his sliding draft stock — and for him to make a meaningful impact on Kentucky’s season — he’ll need to find ways to bring out that versatility that had him so highly regarded in the first place.

“Justin is not just a guy that can score the ball,” said UK assistant coach Orlando Antigua. “His versatility, his ability to defend multiple positions, his ability to offensive rebound, his ability to guard smaller guards, bigger guys — that’s his real value. He’s a well-rounded basketball player. And that’s what we ask of him.”

Kentucky’s coaches have made it clear they’re going to keep asking. With a couple months to go in this 2023-24 season, Edwards still has time to turn things around. UK’s all-systems failure at South Carolina on Tuesday night showed they can use him wherever he’s able to make an impact moving forward. He’ll get plenty of opportunities, but that time is running out.

“Just got to keep getting in, gotta break through,” Calipari said Tuesday night. “He’s got to know that this is a team that — we’ve got a lot of players. And if someone’s playing better than you, you won’t believe this, they’re going to play in front of you. Or you’re going to get your opportunity to go do it.

“The easiest thing to do is defense, rebound, go block a shot, dive on the floor, take a charge. And then when you have plays, make them. But forcing it, with this team, you really don’t have to, because we can create for each other.”

Next game

No. 6 Kentucky at Arkansas

When: 6 p.m. Saturday

TV: ESPN

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Kentucky 14-4 (4-2 SEC), Arkansas 10-8 (1-4)

Series: Kentucky leads 34-14

Last meeting: Kentucky won 88-79 on March 4, 2023, in Fayetteville, Ark.

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