LEXINGTON — If D.J. Wagner ever lacks for motivation, all he has to do is look around the locker room he shares with his Kentucky teammates.

There's Antonio Reeves. And Reed Sheppard. And Rob Dillingham. And Zvonimir Ivišić. Just to name a few.

Shooters at every turn. All especially deadly behind the 3-point line.

For a month, Wagner was anything but that. He simply couldn't make a 3.

Literally.

Starting with UK's loss at South Carolina on Jan. 23 through its victory against Alabama on Feb. 24, Wagner missed an eye-popping 15 straight 3-point attempts. But last week at Mississippi State, he began finding his form from distance.

He hasn’t slowed down since.

Wagner went 3 of 5 on 3s (4 of 8 overall) for 11 points as No. 13 Kentucky proved too much for an overmatched Vanderbilt squad Wednesday, with the Wildcats earning a 93-77 victory at Rupp Arena on senior night.

Despite his recent uptick in perimeter shooting, Wagner wouldn't say it's the most comfortable he's ever felt beyond the arc.

"I feel like confidence is always the most important thing, no matter if you're missing shots, if you're making shots," he said. "It's always important to stay confident no matter how many shots you're missing."

To him, it's the between-game work that takes precedence. Everything else flows from there.

"As long as you put the shots up and you get in the gym, your muscle memory is gonna do the rest for you. ... Some games, you ain't gonna make shots," he said. "That's just how it is."

But Wagner has been making shots — particularly of the 3-point variety — lately. By the bushel.

That started showcasing itself during UK’s road win against Mississippi State eight days ago. He knocked down his first 3-pointer since Kentucky’s victory against Georgia on Jan. 20. Wagner finished that win with 10 points, having made 50% of his 3-point attempts (2 of 4) for the Wildcats (22-8, 12-5 SEC).

He was even better four days later against Arkansas.

Wagner was 6 for 7 from the field — but more importantly, 4 of 5 from 3-point range — for 19 points. It was his highest point total since pouring in a career-high 28 against Marshall in November.

He wasted no time settling into a rhythm Wednesday, either. He sank both of his 3s in the first half. And he bagged another with 4:10 remaining to push UK’s lead to 84-65. One of Wagner’s misses Wednesday never had a chance: He didn’t sense Vanderbilt’s Malik Presley coming from behind. Presley rejected the shot as the Commodores (8-22, 3-14) went the other way and made a triple of their own — courtesy of forward JaQualon Roberts — with 17:54 to play.

During Wagner's monthlong 3-point drought, Kentucky coach John Calipari never lost faith in the five-star freshman from Camden, New Jersey. Much of the shooting struggles, Calipari repeated Wednesday, stemmed from Wagner suffering an ankle injury. As a result, Wagner's shooting touch disappeared.

"I told him the whole time, 'Look, I believe in you and it's going to take time. You took 2 ½ weeks off and didn't touch a basketball,'" Calipari said. "The thing that goes — his energy, his toughness, his defense? None of that went. It was, he couldn't make a shot."

As criticism for Wagner came in from outside the program, Calipari never wavered.

"Look, his whole life, he has been chased. People have tried to make a name at his expense," Calipari said. "He knows how to deal with it, folks. If you are chasing your whole life and you come to Kentucky and now they are chasing you? You may not respond the same way. These guys have all been chased their whole careers. ... So they know how to deal with it."

Looking up at others didn't come naturally for Wagner, one of the top-ranked players in the country in the 2023 class. But that's what Dillingham, Ivišić, Reeves and Sheppard provided: something to pursue, a carrot dangling in front of him. Because they possessed what Wagner lacked: 3-point efficiency.

Dillingham, Reeves and Sheppard own three of the 13 highest single-season percentages in program history, all converting at a 43% clip (or better) in 2023-24; Ivišić entered Wednesday at 46.2% before going 0 for 3 against the Commodores.

Still, iron sharpens iron.

"I ain't in competition with none of my teammates. But in one aspect, it's like, practice is competitive just knowing how many great players we got," Wagner said. "So we help make each other better in that way, if that's what you're saying. ... As many great 3-point shooters as we got, it's like, you wanna make 3s, too. So it's motivation to get in the gym."

His recent improvement now has Wagner up to 32.1% (27 for 84) on 3s this season. But no greater authority than Sheppard — third on the school's single-season list for 3-point accuracy (64 for 130; 50.8%), within striking distance of Cameron Mills' record (53.2%; 42 of 79) set in 1996-97 — said those numbers belie Wagner's marksmanship.

"He's shot like that the whole year (in practice)," Sheppard said. "He was just out for a little bit, so it took him a little time to get back and find the rhythm. But D.J. is a really good player.

"He's super, super fun to play with, and he's gonna do the right things on the court. He's a really good kid and a really good teammate."

While Wagner was going through his rough patch, he sought advice from Reeves, who has made more triples (154) than any Wildcat who spent only two seasons in Lexington.

"He'd come up to me sometimes and he'd ask me questions about how I stay in the mindset of shooting," said Reeves, who had 20 points in Wednesday's win. "I just told him, 'Just don't think about it. Just shoot. It's gonna fall eventually.' But he's been in the gym consistently, each and every day, so I definitely (knew he was) going to go out there and eventually start hitting shots."

Perhaps he'll never be a sniper on the level of Dillingham or Reeves or Sheppard. It doesn't matter to Wagner. Shooting is but one skill in basketball. Games can be won other ways.

Just not without a will.

"Once you lose confidence, it's like, what else you gonna rely on, you know what I'm saying? It was hard. It's always hard," said Wagner, looking back on his slump. "If you miss a shot, there's always a thought in the back of your mind, like, 'Dang, all right. I gotta hit the next one.' But you can't worry about that.

"You just gotta worry about the other things and not focus on missing or making shots, because that (doesn't) determine the game and how you play."

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball: John Calipari's team defeats Vanderbilt at Rupp