Antonio Reeves evaluates his confidence in his shooting

The decision by Antonio Reeves to return to Kentucky changed the course of the Wildcats’ offseason and certainly will change the course of the actual 2023-24 season once it begins. Before he pledged to return for a final year of college ball with the ‘Cats, Kentucky was looking at a roster of seven freshmen and two sophomores.

Thankfully for BBN, Reeves, the 2023 SEC Sixth Man of the Year and second-leading scorer on the team, ultimately decided to come back to Lexington after a bizarre saga in which he was rumored to have wanted to transfer elsewhere. Regardless, he announced his return, which was quickly followed by the commitment of another veteran piece: West Virginia transfer Tre Mitchell.

Just before their trip to Africa, Kentucky got a lot older, which was great for head coach John Calipari since he now has veteran players he can trust a little more than the youngsters at this point. That especially applies to Antonio Reeves, who says that Cal has placed a lot of trust in him as a shooter this time around.

“Man, it’s definitely, you know, something he told me last year — you know, that I could shoot the ball, you know, facilitate, things like that,” Reeves shared at a press conference during Kentucky’s Canada trip. He also said this whole team has a green light to shoot it.

“So he trusted me to — every time I’m open, just shoot it and just try to make it. So yeah, I definitely believe that, you know, we got a lot of playmakers on the team too, so we facilitate a lot, we share the ball a lot, and when guys are open, they have the ability to shoot it. So, you know, it’s a couple guys that’s out there that could shoot the ball and shoot at a high level and believe they can make it. So yeah.”

Reeves has certainly used that freedom to his advantage in Canada. He’s scored 24 points and 23 points in his first two games, then added five threes in the first half of game No. 3 and wound up with 27 total points in that one. Meanwhile, his teammates also got plenty of shine as Kentucky raced out to a 3-0 record in group play thanks to some blistering three-point shooting up and down the roster.