Associated Press Selects Antonio Reeves, Reed Sheppard for All-SEC Teams

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The awards continue to pour in for Kentucky men’s basketball’s Antonio Reeves and Reed Sheppard, who were each named All-Southeastern Conference selections by the Associated Press on Tuesday. Reeves was picked to the first team while Sheppard earned a spot on the second team.

Head coach John Calipari has now coached 23 players (25 total honors) who have earned All-SEC first- or second-team accolades from the AP.

Antonio Reeves

Reeves has firmly cemented himself as one of the nation’s best players. In addition to earning All-SEC First Team honors, he is among the final five candidates for the Jerry West Award, honoring the nation’s best shooting guard as well as a Wooden Award national ballot, the Naismith Trophy midseason list and an Oscar Robertson Trophy Watch List member.

He is UK’s leading scorer at 20.2 points per game, the highest scoring average per game by any player in the 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.

He tallied 30 points in a win at Louisville and followed that performance with 27 against Illinois State. He was just the fourth UK player to ever score 30 or more in the series vs. Louisville. With the 30-point effort at Louisville, Reeves joined Oscar Tshiebwe (4), Malik Monk (4) and Jamal Murray (3) as the only players in the UK-Calipari era to have multiple games with 30 or more points.

Reeves 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 2022 National Player of the Year, 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.

Antonio Reeves Honors:

• Sporting News Third-Team All-America
• Jerry West Award Top 5
• All-SEC First Team (coaches)
• All-SEC First Team (AP)
• 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)

Reed Sheppard

Sheppard is the only player in the country that has amassed at least 75 steals, dished out at least 140 assists and made at least 70 3-pointers through March 9.

Per KenPom.com, his 3-point percentage of 52.6% leads the country, his true-shooting percentage (70.4%) is fourth and his effective field-goal percentage (68.2%) ranks seventh.

Sheppard had the game of his life in UK’s come-from-behind win at Mississippi State on Feb. 27. The London, Kentucky, native poured in a career-high 32 points and added five boards, seven assists, two blocks and two steals. Twenty-three of his points came after halftime. Eleven of them came in the final 93 seconds.

It was the only game of 30-or-more points, seven-plus assists, five-plus rebounds, two-plus blocks and two-plus steals in the NCAA this season and one of only 11 such games going back to 1996-97. It is only the second by an SEC player in that time frame.

He then nearly topped himself with a 27-point, six-rebound, five-assist performance in the upset of No. 4 Tennessee. Sheppard also sunk a career-high seven 3s in that win. Sheppard is the first Kentucky player in school history to have three games with at least 25 points, at least five boards and at least five assists in a single season.

Meanwhile, Sheppard has been a nemesis defensively racking up 78 steals on the season. Since steals became an official stat in 1979, the 78 steals are the third-most by a UK player in program history. Only Rajon Rondo (87) and Wayne Turner (79) have more. He became the first player in UK history to register five steals in three-consecutive games, collecting five thefts against Ole Miss (2/13), Auburn (2/17) and LSU (2/21). The London, Kentucky, native’s 2.52 per game average ranks eighth in the country and leads the SEC. Rondo’s 2.294 per game average is UK’s single-season leader. No other player averaged at least 2.0 per game in program history.

The 6-foot-3 guard also leads the team with 140 assists on the year. His 4.5 per game average ranks third in the league. The 140 assists rank as the eighth-most in single-season history by a UK freshman and he is the 33rd player in program history to have 140 or more assists in a season.

Sheppard is averaging 12.7 points per game and has topped double-figure scoring in 20 games.

Reed Sheppard Honors:

• SEC Freshman of the Year (coaches)
• All-SEC Second Team (coaches)
• All-SEC Second Team (AP)
• All-SEC Freshman Team (coaches)
• Field of 68 Freshman of the Year
• Field of 68 Third-Team All-America
• College Hoops Today (Rothstein) National Sixth Man of the Year
• ESPN National Freshman of the Year (Borzello)
• SEC Freshman of the Week (March 11)
• SEC Freshman of the Week (March 4)
• SEC Freshman of the Week (Dec. 26)
• SEC Freshman of the Week (Dec. 4)

Kentucky opens play at the SEC Tournament on Friday against the winner of Texas A&M and Ole Miss. Game time is set for 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The game will air on SEC Network.

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