The coaches in the league also named the two guards from Kentucky All-SEC.
Antonio Reeves and Reed Sheppard of the Kentucky men’s basketball team continue to get accolades as they were selected by the Associated Press on Tuesday as All-Southeastern Conference players.
Sheppard was selected for the second team, and Reeves was selected for the first team.
Thus far, head coach John Calipari has mentored 23 players (a total of 25 distinctions) who have been named to the AP’s All-SEC first or second team.
Antonio Reeves
Reeves has solidified his status as one of the top players in the country. Apart from being named to the All-SEC First Team, he is one of the five finalists for the Jerry West Award, which recognizes the finest shooting guard in the country. He has also been included in the Wooden Award national ballot, the Naismith Trophy midseason list, and the Oscar Robertson Trophy Watch List.
With an average of 20.2 points per game, he leads all players in the UK and is the highest scoring average of the Calipari era. Reeves is scoring 88.0% of his points from the free throw line, 44.0% from the 3-point line, and 50.7% from the field. 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 scored 27 points against Illinois State after scoring 30 points in a victory at Louisville. He was only the fourth player from the United Kingdom to score thirty or more in the series against Louisville. Reeves became one of only three players in the UK-Calipari era to have multiple games with 30 or more points, along with Oscar Tshiebwe (4), Malik Monk (4), and Jamal Murray (3), after his 30-point performance vs Louisville.
This season, Reeves has scored more than ten points in all but one of his games and more than twenty points in 19 of them. Along with Tshiebwe, the 2022 National Player of the Year, he is only the second UK player under Calipari to have scored 20 goals or more in a career. Of his 28 career 20-plus point scoring performances, 12 have occurred away from home.
The native of Chicago has scored 20 points or more in seven straight games, including 27 on Saturday in an unexpected victory over Tennessee, ranked fourth. Since Murray did it in 12 games in 2016, that is the longest run of 20-point performances by a player from the United Kingdom.
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 in 10 genuine road games this season.
He scored more over 2,000 points in his career against Georgia, combining his time at Kentucky and Illinois State. With twenty-five points at LSU, he became the 62nd player in program history to reach 1,000 career points as a Wildcat. Of the players who have scored 1,000 career points at two different programs, he is one of three active and ten all-time.
With UK, Reeves has amassed 1,115 points in two seasons. Bill Spivey has the most in a two-year period as a Wildcat, with 1,213. Next is Tshiebwe (1,117).
He has played in 55 games with double digits in scoring for UK, 42 games with multiple 3-pointers made, 29 games with 20 points or more, and eight games with five or more made.
Honors of Antonio Reeves:
All-America Third Team by Sporting News
Top 5 of the Jerry West Award
First Team All-SEC (coaches)
First Team All-SEC (AP)
Midseason watch list for the Naismith Player of the Year; John R. Wooden Award finalist
Robertson Oscar Watch list for trophies during the late season
NCAA Basketball Now Third Team All-America
Third Team ESPN All-America
Dick Vitale, National Player of the Week (February 11 and January 22)
Kentucky-Louisville Game MVP, Bluegrass Sports Commission (Dec. 21)
Sheppard Reed
As of March 9, Sheppard stands alone among all players in the nation with a minimum of 75 steals, 140 assists, and 70 3-pointers made.
His true shooting percentage (70.4%) is fourth, his effective field goal percentage (68.2%) is seventh, and his 3-point percentage (52.6%) is the highest in the nation, according to KenPom.com.
On February 27, UK defeated Mississippi State through a comeback victory that Sheppard called the game of his life. In addition to scoring a career-high 32 points, the London, Kentucky, native also contributed five rebounds, seven assists, two blocks, and two steals. He scored twenty-three points in the second half. In the last ninety-three seconds, eleven of them were made.
It was one of just 11 games dating back to 1996–1997 that had 30 or more points, seven or more assists, five or more rebounds, two or more blocks, and two or more steals. This season, it was the only game of its kind in the NCAA. In that period of time, it is only the second by an SEC player.
Then, in the upset of No. 4 Tennessee, he almost exceeded himself with a 27-point, six-rebound, five-assist performance. In the victory, Sheppard also drained a career-high seven threes. In a single season, Sheppard became the only player in Kentucky history to have three games with at least 25 points, five rebounds, and five assists.