Reed Sheppard youth camp tickets bring young Kentucky fan to tears
Following the surprising departure of former head coach John Calipari, it has been an emotional April for plenty of Kentucky Wildcats fans. However, recently, a young fan of the program was brought to tears for a totally different and heartwarming reason.
Recently, Wildcats star wing Reed Sheppard held his pro basketball camp. Sheppard elected to gift the fan, Axel, tickets to the event, which resulted in the young man being overwhelmed with emotion and spewing out tears of joy.
Tristan Pharis from A Sea of Blue caught wind of the story and shared it all for you to see, which you can check out in the video below.
Sheppard had an impressive first year at Kentucky, racking up multiple honors as a true freshman. He finished the 2023-24 season as the national freshman of the year by CBS Sports, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), and the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). All of those honors likely hold significant value to Sheppard. However, bringing joy to a young Kentucky fan in such a fashion undoubtedly has to rank right up there with the rest of the awards the talented freshman has received.
Sheppard’s father has been in contact with new Kentucky coach Mark Pope about future
Mark Pope is officially the next head coach at Kentucky. Now, Sheppard must decide how that may impact his basketball future.
Jeff Sheppard spoke on ESPN Lexington on Friday about the hiring of Pope, who was his former college teammate and roommate. With his old friend taking over the program, it’s news that his family, especially his son, Reed, will be mulling over as far as options for what’s next after his freshman season with the Wildcats.
Pope and Sheppard were teammates for three seasons under Rick Pitino. Pope won one title with the program as a senior in 1996, while Sheppard was around for a pair in 1996 as a junior and then in 1998 as a senior. The two are, as of today, connected again almost 30 years later, with the circumstances being much different for the Wildcats at the moment.