Thoughts on Reed Sheppard’s big week, and other Kentucky basketball recruiting notes
What a week it was for Reed Sheppard.
The Kentucky high school basketball standout and son of UK greats Jeff Sheppard and Stacey Reed Sheppard wowed on his biggest stage yet, the first stop of the Adidas 3SSB national circuit during the initial July evaluation period.
Anyone who’s followed Sheppard at all knows the biggest news to come out of the week was a scholarship offer from the University of Kentucky, which he received last Friday, less than 24 hours after playing in front of John Calipari for the first time in his young career.
That same night, he picked up a scholarship offer from Indiana, and, this week, Sheppard added new offers from Ohio State and Clemson.
While the UK offer was obviously a huge development in his recruitment, that first week on the Adidas circuit really drove home to college coaches and top talent evaluators nationally what Sheppard is capable of on the basketball court.
What was most impressive about Sheppard’s breakthrough week was that, for the most part, he didn’t shoot it that well. He struggled from three-point range for much of the week, going 1-for-8 from deep in one of his games. His mom even pointed out — after Sheppard landed the UK offer — that her son didn’t make shots like he usually does when Calipari was watching.
Yet, he still earned that UK scholarship offer. And he impressed everyone who watched him play. Because he did everything else so well.
From college coaches to longtime scouts, the talk on the sidelines during and after Sheppard’s games revolved around his approach. Everybody who watched said some variation of this: “He just has a great feel for the game.”
247Sports national analyst Eric Bossi wrote afterward that Sheppard is “in position to make a serious climb” in that recruiting service’s rankings. He’s currently No. 65 in the 2023 class, but he’s cementing his status as a top-40 national prospect, at the least.
Rivals.com national analyst Jamie Shaw included Sheppard in his post-event awards roundup, lauding the 6-foot-3 guard’s “excellent vision and pace.” Shaw even said he sees Sheppard as a “true point guard” after this latest viewing. Rivals.com ranked him No. 39 nationally coming into the week.
Major college coaches like Calipari and IU’s Mike Woodson were obviously impressed, too.
That Sheppard was able to generate such buzz while struggling with what is perceived to be his greatest strength — putting up lots of points — was truly remarkable. It was also justified.
Even when he was missing, Sheppard remained confident in his game. He was active and locked in on defense, never letting any offensive struggles take away from his effort on the other end. He went after rebounds and lunged for loose balls, always seeming to be in the right place at the right time to make a play for his team, which went 6-0 to start league play.
Sheppard’s unselfishness was perhaps the standout quality of his week. Official stats weren’t kept, but he had several assists in each game, and several additional instances where he kept the ball moving and a teammate scored down the line. (“Hockey assists,” Calipari would call them). He’s clearly a creative and ultra-willing passer.
One mid-major coach remarked that he wished Sheppard would look to take over games even more from a scoring standpoint. And this coach said that as Sheppard was 0-for-5 from three-point range in the game he was watching. Even in that outing where he went 1-for-8 from three, every shot came within the natural flow of the offense, nothing was forced, and — to this college coach’s point — Sheppard could have kept firing from deep or taken the ball to the rim, and it wouldn’t have looked selfish or out of place.
From a recruiting standpoint, it was interesting to some that programs like Indiana, Ohio State and Clemson would extend offers after the Kentucky one came. On one hand, there’s a sense in recruiting circles that Sheppard will end up at UK, and no one else has a chance. (Several pro-UK Crystal Ball picks from national analysts have already been logged).
On the other hand, the 17-year-old and his family appear that they will truly go through the process with an open mind. They want to see other campuses and talk to other coaches before making a decision. And there’s surely a hope, on those coaches’ part, that the fishbowl nature of Kentucky basketball might be enough to send Sheppard in another direction.
“I have no rush of when I’m going to choose a school,” Sheppard said. “Wherever God wants me to be, at the end of the day, is where I’m going to end up.”
For what it’s worth: Virginia was the program that most onlookers from the sidelines last week saw as the UK alternative with the best shot, though the Cats were still the consensus favorite.
Sheppard doesn’t strike you as the type to go out of his way to seek attention, but his play on the court — and his Kentucky-famous last name — will be drawing plenty of it in the future.
Can anyone beat out the Cats for his commitment? And how high can he rise in the national rankings over the next two years?
A whole lot of folks will be following this basketball journey.
‘Mongolian Mike’
Reed Sheppard’s Midwest Basketball Club is a blast to watch on the basketball court, and the Kentucky high school star isn’t the only standout on the team.
Gabe Cupps — a point guard from Dayton, Ohio — is a super-scoring 2023 recruit who’s already picked up scholarship offers from Indiana, Miami, Xavier and Kansas State, with more likely coming in the near future.
A lesser-known prospect — on the national recruiting scene, at least — coming into last week’s games was Mike Sharavjamts, a Mongolia native who showed off a ton of skill, particularly as a passer, at the first Adidas 3SSB stop. Listed by the team as a 6-9 point guard, Sharavjamts is an important piece on a squad that moves the ball as well as any AAU club in recent memory. He’s skilled for his size and often plays on the perimeter.
His Instagram handle, which already has more than 40,000 followers, is @mongolianmike, and he’s clearly a recruit to keep an eye on over the next few months.
Rutgers, which watched him play last weekend, became the first major school to extend a scholarship offer a few days later. Sharavjamts is a 2022 recruit and will be a senior for Prolific Prep (Calif.) this season.
There’s no indication that Kentucky will be recruiting Sharavjamts, but he does have an intriguing UK connection. His father, Sharavjamts Tserenjanhor, was the first Asian player for the Harlem Globetrotters, and he was teammates on that squad with Kentucky assistant coach Orlando Antigua. The recruit’s father reached out to Antigua last week when he noticed a photo of his old teammate watching the Midwest Basketball Club play at the Adidas event.
Small world.
New coaching staff
The scene on the sidelines at the first Adidas stop was a lot different than the last time Kentucky’s coaches were out recruiting.
Last week, John Calipari showed up in Alabama alongside Orlando Antigua, Chin Coleman and Jai Lucas. When coaches were last permitted to recruit in person — before the COVID-19 pandemic — his assistants were Kenny Payne, Tony Barbee and Joel Justus.
Then, Lucas was at Texas, and Antigua and Coleman were at Illinois. Now, Payne is with the New York Knicks, Barbee is the head coach at Central Michigan, and Justus is the top assistant at Arizona State. (Justus was also there last week, in his new maroon and gold Sun Devils gear).
The visual of Antigua, obviously a key member of the early years of the Calipari era, wearing blue and white was a reminder of Kentucky’s great success on and off the court during that time. He stuck out in the coaching crowd, and recruits talked about him after their games with the same reverence usually reserved for top head coaches.
Coleman, a big name on the Nike grassroots circuit before breaking into college coaching, seemed to know everyone in the gym, with talent evaluators and coaches from other schools coming up to him throughout games to say hello and wish him well on his new gig.
Lucas, the lone holdover from last season’s coaching staff, is clearly a big name in the state of Texas, which has emerged in recent years as the nation’s No. 1 spot for young basketball talent. Every top prospect from Texas that spoke to the Herald-Leader — and there were quite a few of them — mentioned that they had been in contact with Lucas, and a couple of five-star recruits said they already knew and respected the UK assistant through his past work with his father, Texas legend John Lucas, a major figure on the youth basketball camp scene.
Time will tell how well the new UK coaching staff does on the recruiting trail, but they certainly looked the part of one of the nation’s top groups in their first week together out on the road.
Remember the names
Keyonte George, Chris Livingston and Reed Sheppard — three players with UK scholarship offers — drew most of the Wildcats’ attention at last week’s 3SSB event in Alabama, but there was plenty of additional, possible Kentucky-level talent in the gym.
Two names you’ll be hearing much more in the future: Koa Peat and Darryn Peterson.
Neither is in high school yet.
Peat — listed by 247Sports as a 6-7 small forward — was impressive for his Compton Magic junior team. He towered over much of the competition, but he also played like a point guard, getting out on the break and finishing in traffic, just as smooth with the ball in his hands as he was effective in the paint against smaller players.
247Sports profiled Peat last month, calling him one of the best talents the recruiting service had seen so far this summer, regardless of age. The Arizona native already has scholarship offers from Kansas, UCLA, Arizona, Texas, Southern Cal and Arizona State, among others. He’s just 14 years old.
Peterson — listed as a 6-4 point guard — played up with the Wildcat Select 16u squad last week and still managed to look out of place. The 14-year-old from Canton, Ohio, was confident and shifty with the ball in his hands and projects as a phenomenal scorer from all three levels. He also looked like he could be a game-changing defender in the future, with plenty of length and athleticism to go with his frame.
Maryland, West Virginia, Louisiana State and Pittsburgh have already extended scholarship offers to Peterson, and UK’s Orlando Antigua watched at least one of his games last week. He plays for the same Wildcats Select squad that produced Kentucky center Oscar Tshiebwe.
Look for these two guys near the top of the 2025 rankings, whenever the national recruiting websites come out with such lists.
What’s next?
The second of three July evaluation periods begins Friday and runs through Sunday, so John Calipari, his three assistant coaches, and the rest of the college basketball coaching community will be back out on the road for the next three days.
Where will UK’s coaches pop up? This week, it’ll be Nike, Nike, Nike.
Though the Adidas circuit will be back in action with its championship weekend in Council Bluffs, Iowa — and UK will likely be represented there for another look at some top players in that league — this will be the first time this summer that all of Nike’s teams will be in the same gym.
That’s where Calipari will likely spend a good chunk of his weekend.
Nike is lumping its regular-season play and annual Peach Jam finals into one long, two-week stretch. That schedule actually began Tuesday in North Augusta, S.C., with Friday marking the first day college coaches are permitted to attend. (Fans are not allowed at this year’s event, due to COVID-19).
The featured players on the Nike circuit this year include Jalen Duren, Dereck Lively II, Shaedon Sharpe, Brandon Miller and Jaden Bradley from the class of 2022, and DJ Wagner and JJ Taylor from the class of 2023. All of those players have UK scholarship offers.
It’s likely that other players from those classes will end up with Kentucky offers by the end of the month, once Calipari and his coaching staff get to evaluate them in person. (Class of 2022 guard Cason Wallace is one player to watch. He’s already on UK’s radar, and he’s been playing well to start the week).
The third and final July evaluation period is set for next Friday-Sunday, and UK’s coaches will return to North Augusta for another round of Nike action then.
