#AllAmericanAntonio: Reeves on Third Team by Sporting News
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky senior guard Antonio Reeves has officially earned All-America distinction. UK’s 6-foot-6 sharpshooter was named to The Sporting News All-America Third Team on Tuesday, one of the NCAA’S four recognized squads.
Reeves is UK’s leading scorer at 20.2 points per game, the highest scoring average per game by any player in the John Calipari era. Reeves is tallying marks of 50.7% from the field, 44.0% from 3-point range and 88.0% from the free-throw line — all career bests. He is the only Power 5 player averaging at least 1.5 made 3-pointers and tallying at least .490% from the field, .435 from 3-point range and .865 from the charity stripe.
The Sporting News is one of the four “major” NCAA-recognized All-America teams that the NCAA uses for its consensus All-America teams. The other three are the Associated Press, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
Reeves is the 13th player under Calipari to earn All-America distinction by one of the four major organizations. He joins John Wall (2010), DeMarcus Cousins (2010), Anthony Davis (2012), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (2012), Julius Randle (2014), Willie Cauley-Stein (2015), Karl-Anthony Towns (2015), Tyler Ulis (2016), Jamal Murray (2016), Malik Monk (2017), PJ Washington (2019) and Oscar Tshiebwe (2022, 2023) in earning All-America honors by either The Sporting News, AP, USBWA or the NABC. He is the 57th player overall in program history to earn All-America accolades.
He has topped double-figure scoring in all but one game this season and eclipsed the 20-point plateau in 19 games. He is just the second UK player under Calipari to have 20-plus career 20-or-more scoring efforts in his career, joining Tshiebwe, in that category. Twelve of his 28 career 20-plus point scoring efforts have come on the road.
The Chicago native has scored 20 or more in seven straight games, including 27 in an upset win against No. 4 Tennessee on Saturday. That’s the longest streak of 20-point efforts for a UK player since Murray did so in 12 games in 2016.
In 10 true road games this season, Reeves averaged 22.9 points per game, 48.5% from the field, 50.8% from 3-point range with 3.3 made 3s per game and 82.9% from the charity stripe.
Against Georgia, he eclipsed 2,000 career points combining his time at Illinois State and at Kentucky. As a Wildcat, he became the 62nd player in program history to amass 1,000 career points with 25 at LSU. He is one of three active players and 10 all-time to tally 1,000 career points at two different programs.
In two seasons with UK, Reeves has scored 1,115 points. The most in a two-year span as a Wildcat is 1,213 by Bill Spivey. Tshiebwe (1,117) is in second.
In his career with UK, he has 55 double-digit scoring games, 42 games with multiple made 3s, 29 20-point games and eight games with five or more made 3s.
Reeves is racking up postseason honors by the day. The major honors he’s won or is a finalist for so far include:
• Sporting News Third-Team All-America
• Jerry West Award Top 5
• All-SEC First Team (coaches)
• John R. Wooden Award finalist
• Naismith Player of the Year midseason watch list
• Oscar Robertson Trophy late season watch list
• College Hoops Today All-America Third Team
• ESPN All-America Third Team
• Dick Vitale National Player of the Week (Jan. 22 and March 11)
• Bluegrass Sports Commission MVP of Kentucky-Louisville Game (Dec. 21)
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
