Kentucky basketball is fun again — and Reed Sheppard has a lot to do with it
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Jeff and Stacey Sheppard starred in basketball at Kentucky, so they knew what their son was about to find out Tuesday night at Rupp Arena. With a top-10 team coming to town, the atmosphere would be crazier than anything Reed Sheppard, a freshman guard, had experienced to date. Rupp gets up for the big games. The Sheppards understood that a fan base desperate for a return to glory, teased by the near-miss against preseason No. 1 Kansas and tantalized by explosive offensive performances against overmatched mid-majors, would be buzzing over the opportunity for validation against No. 8 Miami.
So when the game began, Jeff and Stacey, seated a few rows behind Kentucky ’s bench, looked like they might throw up.
“We were both nervous,” Stacey said. “But then he hit that first shot, and he had that little swag-nod when he ran back, and I was like, ‘OK, he’s feeling good. So we’re good.’ I can see it — when a player is in a zone, they just get a different confidence level, and you can tell.”
Reed Sheppard has been in a zone for the first month of his college career, apparently. He checked into a tie game with 15:38 to go in the first half Tuesday night, and just seven seconds later, he splashed a 3-pointer. The packed house, nearly 20,000 strong, made a thunderous noise when it dropped, and every successive eruption seemed a little louder than the last. Sheppard and the Wildcats, simultaneously feeding into and being fed by that crowd’s palpable energy, hit the Hurricanes so hard and fast that coach Jim Larranaga could hardly believe it.
His team, which played in the Final Four last season, also has a high-octane offense. This was supposed to be a shootout, and for a half, it was. “I said the first team to 80 would win,” Larranaga said. And he was right. He just didn’t expect 12th-ranked Kentucky to get there with nine minutes to go, on its way to a stunning, 95-73 blowout victory. Led once again by Sheppard, the handsome, homegrown hero with a smooth shooting stroke and preternatural gift for defensive disruption, the Cats recorded their first statement win of the season.
That statement, which rang out loud and clear and reverberated through Rupp’s rafters for two solid hours: Kentucky basketball is fun again. The program has its cool factor back. It was fitting, then, that John Calipari’s first star here, 2010 No. 1 pick John Wall, was courtside Tuesday. He knows a thing or two about making Kentucky must-see TV.
“It’s so exciting,” Stacey Sheppard said, “because the fans are excited about this team again. It’s been some rough years, and some games have been brutal to watch, but this team, they love playing with each other. And they know how to play, and they can all create shots for themselves and for their teammates. Watching them grow and develop each game has been really fun, and you can just tell as they get more and more time together, it’s going to be a special group.”
Many suspected as much before now — Calipari signed the No. 1 recruiting class, after all — but that optimism came with a healthy dose of caution until the rollicking new style the Wildcats play translated into results against quality competition. Well, how’s this for results?
In one devastating 11 1/2-minute stretch Tuesday, UK turned a 1-point deficit into a 26-point lead by hitting 18 of 20 attempts from the field. The shot chart from that run is art, a modern basketball masterpiece, featuring 10 dunks and layups and six made 3-pointers. By the end of that blitz, the Cats were a staggering plus-38 in Sheppard’s first 21 minutes on the court.
“This is a huge, huge win for us,” Sheppard said. “We knew we had a good team, but now we know for sure.”
He hit five of his first six 3s Tuesday and finished with 21 points, five boards, four assists, three steals, a block and just one turnover in 30 minutes. Sheppard, a London, Ky., native and the state’s Mr. Basketball last season, was a fan favorite from Day 1. But he has quickly become a full-blown sensation. “He’s so good at everything,” Larranaga said. He entered Tuesday ranked No. 1 nationally in true shooting percentage and has made 19 of 30 3-pointers (63.3 percent) in his first seven college games. Every time he rose for another attempt against Miami, the Rupp crowd roared in anticipation.
Students are turning it up in Rupp tonight pic.twitter.com/ksyl73Zpm1— Kentucky Athletics November 29, 2023
“That was the loudest I’ve heard them in a long time,” said Sheppard, who believes fans are responding to the way the team is playing. “It’s a fun way. When everyone can pass, dribble and shoot, when all five people are running the floor, swinging it, making shots, and then we’re having fun out there on the court playing together, smiling the whole time and giving high-fives, everything we’re doing is just fun. The crowd was unbelievable. I don’t think they sat down one time. It was super, super cool, definitely a moment we’ll never forget.”
Jeff Sheppard, owner of two national championship rings and the 1998 Final Four Most Outstanding Player award, can relate. And by the way, he only looks miserable watching Reed play. Despite those visible nerves, “I’m having the time of my life,” he said. “It’s a great ride. I’m just a dad cheering for my boy. That’s all it is. We as adults overanalyze it, but he’s also just a boy playing basketball and having fun with his friends. It’s that simple, and we want him to keep it that simple.”
Sheppard, seemingly unfazed by all this new hype and attention, still hasn’t started a game for Kentucky. Neither has his second-unit running mate, Rob Dillingham, who had a dozen points, nine assists, five rebounds, two steals and zero turnovers Tuesday.
“Those are two NBA guys,” Larranaga said. “That’s a pretty good night from your bench.”
It’s kind of hard to fathom, actually. Not necessarily that Sheppard and Dillingham don’t start — although we are rapidly approaching the point of a serious discussion about why not — rather that Calipari has such a deep and talented backcourt that he can bring those two in as a second wave. Kind of like 2014-15, when he was rolling in five-star reserves “like tanks over the hill,” as he put it that season when they beat Kansas by 32. That team is the only one under Calipari that ever beat a top-10 opponent worse than this one beat Miami on Tuesday.
The Cats still aren’t near full strength, either. None of the three 7-footers has played yet, although five-star freshman Aaron Bradshaw is practicing, participated in warm-ups Tuesday and might make his debut this weekend. Starting point guard DJ Wagner sat for the entire second half after rolling his ankle Tuesday, and Dillingham’s time was limited by foul trouble. Kentucky led by as many as 29 points and shot 60 percent from the field anyway.
So just imagine what Calipari’s team might do when everybody is available. The Wildcats have already scored 81-plus points in seven straight games for the first time since 1970-71. They’ve had 24-plus assists in four straight games and average just 8.1 turnovers per game.
“What’s impressive about Kentucky’s offense,” Larranaga said, “is how well they share the ball.”
Sheppard sets that tone. If you ask him about the outsized crowd reaction to anything he does well, or about his preposterous plus/minus numbers, or about the way his shockingly reliable jump shot is rapidly making him a potential one-and-done NBA Draft prospect, the baby-faced star just smiles wide and talks about his teammates. His thought process? “Make the right play,” he says. “With these dudes around me, it’s really, really easy to do that.”
It’s also exceptionally easy on the eyes when a team plays that way. It’s beautiful basketball. Sheppard and the Cats have brought that back to Lexington. The fans love him — and love them — because of it. After the game Tuesday, Stacey Sheppard said she had not yet been so overwhelmed watching her son play that she’d shed any tears.
“I think we’ve been too nervous to cry. But every game we come to, it’s just an unbelievable feeling that our son is playing at Kentucky. And not just playing, but playing well and helping this team win and having a blast,” she said, choking on the final few words. Out of nowhere, tears welled up in her eyes. Fine, now she has cried. “When Reed does well and they feed off that, and Reed feeds off them, it’s really special. To sit here watching your baby go check in the game and the crowd erupts before he ever does anything, it’s an awesome feeling.”
For Kentucky fans, that feeling is mutual.
(Top photo: Andy Lyons / )
