John Calipari evaluates what he’s seen from Reed Sheppard so far

John Calipari has coached a lot of terrific freshmen and future superstars, but few rookies under his watch have come into their freshmen seasons as complete a player as Laurel County’s finest, Reed Sheppard.

The legacy recruit emerged from the mountains as the state’s best prospect in the last decade and followed in his father’s footsteps to wear the blue and white. Seven games into his freshman year and Sheppard has exceeded any expectations tenfold.

His latest great outing came in the 22-point home win over No. 8 Miami (FL) Tuesday night. Kentucky outscored the Hurricanes by more than a point per minute with Sheppard on the court as he played 30 minutes and logged a +35 for the night — in large part thanks to his contributions: 21 points on 8-13 shooting, 5-9 from three, along with five rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block.

It’s not those stats that impress Calipari. Rather, he sees shades of his former great players in Sheppard’s demeanor.

“My best players that I have coached — man, I’ve coached NBA, MVPs, you know — those players are even-keel,” said Cal in the postgame. “Now, they will get emotional about a play, but they are never up and down. Those guys, they just are like that. And that’s how he is.”

High praise for the rookie. And while Reed Sheppard came in expected to be a sharpshooter from deep, he’s shown that his game features far more than just a nice shooting stroke — and he certainly does have one.

He was never a knock-down shooter. You know, what he has done? He lives in that gym,” Calipari. “He works. And he’s made himself kind of like Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander). And some of these other kids that I have had, they build their own confidence. It’s not me saying you’re great or you are bad or… you know, it’s them.”

Coach Calipari is also impressed with the youngster’s ability to see the floor on offense and his active hands on the other end of the court — traits that he credits to Sheppard’s mother.

“I always saw his ability to have a feel for passing. His hands, I am not joking when I say this, that’s Stacey’s. That’s who that is. Jeff wasn’t that way. Stacey was that way. And, you know, you just see him get his hands on balls.”

Calipari slowed down the praise, though, to note that Sheppard still has his occasional lapses and rookie mistakes, especially when trying to do too much on defense.

“But, again, he had about five break downs today that were discipline. He just, like, why did you try to steal that? Why are you leaving your feet? We are not playing that way. But he was young. He is young.”

To finish on a positive, Calipari commented on Sheppard’s absurd plus-minus, saying, “I don’t know, his plus-minus was probably off the charts again. Yeah, 35. But it was good.”