Reed Sheppard after falling to Tennessee: 'I'm not worried one bit'

It’s safe to say that morale is low around Lexington after Kentucky dropped their second straight, third of their last four, and fourth of their last seven on Saturday. Even so, the Wildcats themselves, including Reed Sheppard, know that they’re capable of getting their skid sorted out.

Sheppard spoke about any senses of urgency from him and his teammates following their 103-92 loss to Tennessee this weekend. The freshman’s response was one of confidence in regards to how he’s feeling about the team moving forward.

“We’ll be okay,” said Sheppard. “I’m not worried one bit.”

That faith comes from who Sheppard believes that the Wildcats are as individuals and a group. He fully expects each of them them to use this as a lesson in order to improve heading into February.

“The type of guys that we have on this team? We’re fine,” said Sheppard.”

“We’re going to keep getting better, we’re going to keep learning from it,” Sheppard said. “These are definitely going to be learning experiences.”

Kentucky started the season with a record of 12-2 as one of the more exciting teams in the country. After a few up and down campaigns in the bluegrass, it appeared that the program had returned to form in a sense when it came to the potential of this year’s team.

However, since then, that outlook has come down to Earth a bit with a 3-4 stretch over their last seven in conference play. A five-point loss in overtime at Texas A&M, giving up 96 in a win over Georgia, their largest defeat of the season by 17 points at South Carolina, and a close call at Arkansas were all smaller steps in the wrong direction.

Then, this past week, the Wildcats took a significant leap backwards with a pair of losses inside Rupp Arena. One came to Florida where they lost in overtime after leading by four with under 40 seconds left in regulation. The other came by way of the matchup with Tennessee in primetime where the Volunteers hung and UK allowed a season-high of 103 points. Both were brutal in their own way while neither inspired much hope in regards to Kentucky’s current trajectory.

Still, as far as the players, Sheppard says there’s still plenty of belief from him and in their locker room. That starts with getting back to work this week to fix what may be wrong and learn from it with two more games coming up this week.

“We’ll go in tomorrow, we’ll watch film. We’ll learn from it,” said Sheppard. “Then we’ll go and just keep taking it day by day and game by game.”