LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky’s first basketball commitment for the 2023 recruiting class is in, and he’s a young player who’s already plenty familiar to the Wildcats’ faithful.
Reed Sheppard — a 6-foot-3 guard from North Laurel High School in London, Ky. — announced Saturday morning that he has committed to Kentucky, where he’ll follow in the footsteps of his parents, UK basketball greats Jeff Sheppard and Stacey Reed Sheppard.
Sheppard is the No. 17 overall prospect in the 2023 class, according to 247Sports, a position that makes him the highest-rated Kentucky high school basketball player in the history of the 247Sports rankings. He’s also obviously a major legacy recruit for UK.
“It’s a big commitment,” said 247Sports analyst Travis Branham. “It’s not too often that you get a truly top-tier player coming out of the state of Kentucky, so anytime that happens, for Kentucky to keep him home and to lock that down is obviously big. Especially with the lineage and the legacy at play here.
“On top of the name and how exciting it is to have somebody like that come — he’s a tremendous player, a tremendous talent.”
Sheppard’s path to five-star status took a little longer to materialize due to the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The North Laurel standout made a name for himself in Kentucky hoops circles early on — averaging 20.6 points per game as a freshman — but the pandemic hit shortly after that first season, altering opportunities for analysts to see him on the grassroots circuit and keeping college coaches off the recruiting trail altogether for nearly 18 months.
Branham first had the opportunity to evaluate Sheppard during his sophomore season. As a result of that viewing, 247Sports was the first national website to place him in its Top 100 rankings, debuting at No. 65 overall in March.
The process from there was similar among analysts and college coaches.
Everyone knew Sheppard’s backstory and the fact that he was putting up big numbers against Kentucky competition — 30.1 points per game as a sophomore — but, even after watching him with his high school team, evaluators wanted to know how his game would translate against top AAU competition.
Sheppard got his opportunity to show that — and analysts and coaches got their opportunity to see him do it — on the highest level of the Adidas circuit this past summer.
“And he just blew every expectation away, to be frank,” Branham said. “He just has a tremendous IQ, feel and skill set. He plays basketball the right way. That probably comes as no surprise, knowing who his parents are. He doesn’t really force the issue. He’s a great passer. He’s a knockdown shooter. He’s a really, really good athlete. I saw him on several occasions this year where he just really comes out of nowhere on the offensive glass — he’ll just rise up and punch one on you if you don’t box him out.
“He’s a tremendous player. And he’ll be a heck of a player in the collegiate ranks.”
Sheppard’s showing in July — playing in front of gyms packed with high-level college coaches for the first time — earned him immediate scholarship offers from Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana and Ohio State, to go along with an offer from Louisville a month earlier. He picked UK on Saturday after visiting all five of those schools.
His play over the summer also allowed analysts to start thinking about where to place him in their 2023 rankings after getting to see all of the top prospects in that group playing under similar circumstances for the first time in more than a year.
Sheppard’s five-star ranking shows what they thought of him.
“The more you watch, the more you come away sold,” Branham said. “And that became clearer and clearer, especially once coaches got onto the circuit. … You saw some of these other guys across the national landscape in this ’23 class, and you knew Reed was one of the best players in the country.”
Immediate impact at kentucky
The manner in which Kentucky and other schools recruited Sheppard made it clear that he earned his UK offer at a relatively early stage in the process not because of his family ties, but because he was truly and clearly good enough to play basketball for the Wildcats.
John Calipari extended the offer less than 24 hours after seeing Sheppard play in person for the first time at an Adidas event in Alabama in July, with NCAA COVID-19 restrictions prohibiting the UK coach from seeing him during the high school season.
Calipari then visited Sheppard at his school during the fall recruiting period and brought him onto campus for two unofficial visits over the past several weeks. Sheppard was clearly a priority recruit for Kentucky in this cycle, and he’s a player who should make an immediate impact for the Wildcats as a freshman.
Obviously, it’s difficult to project the roster situation at UK very deep into the future — and college newcomers respond to the transition in different ways — but Sheppard is talented and versatile enough that he will be expected to play a contributing role right off the bat.
“I would expect Reed to at least be a very serviceable guy to come in off the bench,” Branham said. “And I think he has the potential to be a starter on the team — depending on the personnel and who you have — from day one, just because of how skilled, how smart he is and how he plays the game. He’s just one of those guys that you can throw in and typically know what you’re going to get out of him. He’s going to adjust well, given that IQ. You know he’s going to make shots. You know he’s going to make the right passes. He’s going to play the right way.”
One of the most impressive aspects of Sheppard’s ascent over the summer was that he managed to gain the national recognition that he did while playing a team-first approach and leading his Midwest Basketball Club to a 14-1 record against top-flight competition in July.
Sheppard also led North Laurel to a 25-3 record last season, topping the state in scoring while shooting 40.9 percent from 3-point range. As gifted a scorer and shooter as he is, Sheppard plays within the flow of the game and is always looking out for teammates on the offensive end. He rebounds well for his position, and he’s a dangerous scorer and passer in transition.
Branham reiterated that Sheppard has the potential to be a starter at Kentucky from the beginning of his freshman season and said defense will be a major determining factor in how much he plays for the Wildcats early on.
Sheppard is a good defender — with quick hands and great instincts — but that’s an area where Calipari always challenges his players, especially the younger ones, to excel.
“With most of these freshmen that come into Kentucky, the further ahead you are defensively, the better off you’re going to be,” Branham said. “That’s always the biggest hangup with Cal — if you’re not defending, if you’re a liability on defense, you’re not going to play. That’s just a fact.
“We’ve seen it year after year. Unless you’re just some special guy where you have to be on the floor offensively, but that doesn’t happen too often. You have to play defense.”
Branham said Sheppard will spend the next year and half — he has two more seasons of high school ball left, remember — honing those defensive skills and tendencies before he gets to Kentucky, where he’s likely to be playing alongside a few other five-star backcourt players. (The Cats are also in good standing with No. 1 recruit DJ Wagner and top-10 prospect Robert Dillingham, both combo guards in the 2023 class).
Sheppard does have the potential to defend both the point guard and “2” guard spots, and his overall feel for the game should give him an advantage once he gets to college.
“Any time you have a guy that has his IQ for the game, there’s going to be defensive upside there,” he said. “He’s going to be able to know how to guard his man. He’s going to be able to adapt, depending on coverages. He knows how to do all of those things, so he’s got a safe floor defensively. Especially with how athletic he is.”
As far as areas in need of drastic improvement, there really aren’t any.
Sheppard simply needs to further develop the skills he already possesses to make an immediate impact as a freshman. He’s a knockdown shooter, but any added consistency there will always help. He has the potential to play major minutes as a point guard in college, so any gains he can make as a playmaker and passer will be beneficial. And then there’s the defensive side of the court, where added strength, athleticism and quickness — coupled with his high basketball IQ — will only help his cause.
“He’s one of those kids that just has an extremely high floor,” Branham said. “What he does translates already. He does everything well.”
