John Calipari gets his first look at Reed Sheppard. So what happens next?
UPDATE: After the article below was written Friday, Reed Sheppard was offered a scholarship by the University of Kentucky. Read the latest news about the offer here.
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The final half-hour or so before Reed Sheppard’s first game on the national Adidas circuit Thursday evening was spent on one of the warm-up courts off to the side, putting up shots.
Sheppard — the 6-foot-2 basketball phenom from North Laurel High School — bounced around the floor, playing catch-and-shoot. He put it up from mid-range. He put it up from three. He put it up from the free-throw line. The ball went in about 75 percent of the time, and that’s a conservative estimate. More often than not, it didn’t touch anything but net on its way through the hoop, where a man — just a dad helping out with his kid’s summer team — caught each made basket and quickly passed the ball back out to Sheppard or one of his teammates.
As the rest of the Midwest Basketball Club players migrated to their bench area to get ready for the game, Sheppard and the man rebounding the basketball stayed behind for a few more shots.
The teenager planted himself on the wing, working his way toward the corner, and made shot after shot — six or seven three-pointers in a row, maybe more — before finally deciding he’d practiced enough. He exchanged a fist bump with the man who had been passing him the ball — it was Jeff Sheppard, the Final Four MVP when the University of Kentucky won the national championship in 1998 — and father and son walked across the court, ready for the game to begin.
Sheppard’s mother, Stacey Reed Sheppard — one of the greatest women’s basketball players in UK’s history — had already staked out a front-row seat, well in advance of tip-off.
The game started, mom in the stands, dad on the bench, and Reed the center of attention.
There was nothing out of the ordinary there.
What made this night different was who else was watching from the bleachers.
On the other side of the court from the Midwest Basketball Club bench, a few rows up, sat John Calipari. Occupying the seat next to him was Orlando Antigua. Standing near the baseline, a few feet away, were Chin Coleman and Jai Lucas.
Not only had Calipari shown up for Sheppard’s very first game of the all-important July evaluation period, but he had brought all three of his assistant coaches. And each one of them stayed for the entire game.
“I didn’t even recognize that,” a surprised Reed Sheppard responded when asked if he had seen Calipari and the other UK coaches in the stands. He was apparently too locked in to notice.
His dad was focused, too — coaching, cheering, even wiping sweat off the floor with a towel when two players collided near the bench and went down in a heap — but he must have snuck a peek toward the stands at some point.
“Yeah, that was cool!” Jeff Sheppard said with a big smile at the mention of the entire Kentucky coaching staff watching his boy play.
As far as first impressions go, this one couldn’t have started off much better.
Six seconds into the game — after Midwest Basketball Club won the opening tip — Sheppard hit a teammate with a perfect pass for the opening bucket. His first three offensive touches all ended up the same: on-the-nose setups for teammates. Two went for assists. The other led to a missed shot. Right after that, Sheppard picked off a pass just past halfcourt and quickly took it home for a breakaway dunk. Next trip down the court, he drilled a long three-pointer with a defender’s hand in his face. Calipari watched it all.
“That’s cool,” Sheppard said after finding out the UK staff had been looking on. “Being from Kentucky — of course, mom and dad both played at Kentucky — but just being a high school player from Kentucky, that’s everybody’s dream is to go to the University of Kentucky. And now that they’re over there watching, that’s something that’s pretty cool.
“But we’re just going to see how it all plays out. And we’ll see how it goes.”
Recruiting Reed Sheppard
Midwest Basketball Club squeaked out a 55-52 victory over Utah Prospects in Thursday’s opener. After Sheppard’s electric start to the game, he was good, but not great. He continued to set up teammates and play within the offense. He was engaged defensively. His shots just didn’t fall like they usually do. That’ll happen.
It was a bit of a mixed bag to start a busy week, but his team got the victory, and Sheppard showed plenty of signs of what has made him such an intriguing talent and sought-after recruit.
As far as how that recruitment relates to UK, this was only the start.
There’s already plenty of angst coming from a vocal portion of the Kentucky fan base decrying Calipari’s reluctance to extend a scholarship offer to the double-legacy recruit.
If that angst extends to the Sheppard family, there was no sign of it after Thursday’s game. Reed expressed genuine gratitude that the entire staff had taken the time to watch him play. Jeff, who was thoughtful and candid on a number of topics related to his son’s recruitment and college basketball, in general, preached patience.
“He’s a junior,” the elder Sheppard said. “It’s early. And this is the first time — today is the first time — that Coach Cal has laid his eyes on Reed in an in-person setting. In a game. And so we’ll see how it plays out. He’s got five more games this weekend. And six more next weekend. So he’s got plenty of opportunity to impress and be evaluated.”
Indeed, the recruiting restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic prevented Calipari and every other college coach from seeing players in person from March 2020 until last month. In a normal time, the Kentucky coach probably would have watched Sheppard play at some point during his stellar high school season, when he averaged 30.1 points per game and led the state in scoring as a sophomore. Or at some point earlier in the year with his AAU club.
The fact is, this was the first opportunity for Calipari to watch Sheppard in a setting against elite competition. And not only did he show up, he brought his entire coaching staff with him.
Still, other college programs are already showering Sheppard with attention, and that’s a big part of the reason Kentucky fans would like to see Calipari show some haste in this situation.
Louisville extended a scholarship offer June 15, the first day that college coaches were permitted to directly contact players from Sheppard’s 2023 class. U of L Coach Chris Mack was also sitting courtside for Thursday’s game.
Virginia hosted Sheppard and his family for a recruiting visit last month. He mentioned Gonzaga, Indiana and Clemson as three additional schools that have been particularly persistent in their early pursuit of his commitment.
Until Thursday, the most he’d seen or heard from Kentucky came in the form of a handful of text messages from Antigua. Perhaps that’s about to change.
“The time will come when — if they like the way he plays — we’ll talk and see how it all goes,” his father said.
‘A little bit of perspective’
Sheppard’s parents have been here before. Neither grew up in a time of such social media speculation and constant focus on high school recruits, but both were star players before they came to UK and both know as well as anyone how much Kentucky basketball fans care about their Wildcats.
And there’s full awareness of the unique situation their son is in. He’s one of the best high school prospects from Kentucky in years — No. 39 nationally in his class, according to the new Rivals.com rankings — and also happens to be the son of two former UK basketball stars. It’s unprecedented, and, in some ways, it has to be a tough spot for a 17-year-old who just wants to enjoy what’s left of his childhood and two parents who simply want their boy to have fun and be a kid.
On the outside, the major plot line in Sheppard’s basketball story has become: will Kentucky offer a scholarship? Message board posts, opinionated tweets, idle UK basketball chatter in restaurants and living rooms around the state — they often center on Sheppard and why the Cats haven’t offered. What’s the holdup? And that question will hang over the high school star until there’s a clear answer. Sheppard and his family are well aware of this fact.
Has that taken the fun out of it?
“No. The short answer is no,” Jeff Sheppard said, without pause.
He said that Reed and his sister, Madison, who plays basketball at Campbellsville University, have been around the UK basketball circus their entire lives. They grew up watching their dad be recognized wherever he went, asked to pose for photos with fans in the grocery store.
“So it’s not brand new,” Jeff said. “Reed Sheppard has been Reed Sheppard for 17 years. The spotlight is now turned on him, and that part of it’s different, but, no, the experience is a blast. And we’re going to have a blast going through this. And however it plays out, it’ll play out. We have a lot of faith. We’re a family of faith. We trust God. And we’re trying to get our arms wrapped around all of those components. What an awesome opportunity.”
From Reed’s end: yes, he acknowledges, it would mean the world to land a scholarship offer to play for the Wildcats. And, yes, of course, he grew up cheering for UK, he confirmed Thursday.
He said he’s thankful to have two parents who have already been down this road, supportive confidantes for his questions and concerns as he navigates this unique situation. They tell him to be himself, have fun, try not to get caught up in it all. And the rest will take care of itself.
“Right now, I’m just trying to enjoy high school,” he said. “I’ve got two more years left.”
His dad knows this is just the beginning.
“It’s obviously a really cool story,” Jeff said. “And it’s an easy one to write about. It’s an easy one to cheer for and to follow, with Stacey’s background and my background, and Reed being right down I-75. And all of that’s OK. And hopefully everybody can just enjoy it, and Reed can enjoy it, and we all can kind of have a little bit of perspective with it all. That’s our approach. We’ll try to make this as normal as possible. But I’ve been there, and I understand it, and I get it. And all of it’s OK. It’s all OK. The positive comments are OK. And the question marks are OK.
“It’s good training for life. And, so, it’ll be fun.”
Father and son both spoke Thursday night just a few feet away from where they had shared that moment before the game, just the two of them on the court, Reed knocking down threes and Jeff catching the ball and passing it back to watch his boy do it again.
That was before they walked to the adjacent court to play in front of some of the biggest names in coaching, national talent evaluators, and reporters looking to glean a little something new regarding Reed’s recruitment.
After nearly 10 minutes of politely, patiently answering everything asked of him — almost all of the queries in some way related to UK — Sheppard was asked if he had grown tired of all these Kentucky questions.
“A little bit,” he said with a grin. “It’s all good, though.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 7:30 AM.
