Antonio Reeves sure does love to play Arkansas in Fayetteville

Arkansas fans should be thankful that Antonio Reeves won’t have any college eligibility left after this season. Something about playing in Fayetteville just gets his scoring juices flowing.

Reeves absolutely lit up Bud Walton Arena last season. The Kentucky guard poured in a career-high 37 points against a Razorbacks squad that was much better than the one we saw on Saturday night. Although Reeves didn’t quite reach the 37-point mark this time around, his 24 points were more than enough to take down Arkansas by a final score of 63-57.

He wasn’t always perfect, but Reeves stepped up early on at a time when no other Kentucky player could. He scored 10 (4-10 FG) of the Wildcats’ 24 first-half points against the Hogs. It was his second-half performance though that helped lift Kentucky to a must-have win.

Antonio Reeves is the first Kentucky player to score at least 24 points against Arkansas in Fayetteville twice in their career

— Corey Price (@coreyp08) January 28, 2024

The fifth-year guard added 14 more points after the break, shooting 5-10 from the field including a 3-5 mark from long range. Reeves delivered two daggers into the heart of Arkansas fans down the stretch, drilling a second-chance three-pointer with 5:22 left in regulation that gave Kentucky a four-point lead. A few minutes later, another triple with 2:40 on the clock once again made it a four-point advantage for the ‘Cats.

Kentucky scored five straight after that, sealing the win for good.

It wasn’t just his scoring that stood out either. During his postgame radio session with Tom Leach, head coach John Calipari complimented Reeves for his defensive effort against Arkansas’ leading scorer, Tramon Mark. Mark finished with just 11 points on 5-17 shooting. Reeves also added four rebounds, one assist, and two steals to his stat line in a team-high 37 minutes played.

“He was unbelievable, played well,” Calipari said.

Kentucky fans have been speaking it into existence for a couple of weeks now, but it’s time that the entire college basketball world learns exactly how special Antonio Reeves has been in 2023-24.

Throughout 19 games so far this season (all starts), Reeves is averaging a team-best 19.5 points to go along with 4.4 rebounds in 30.9 minutes per game. But that’s not the impressive part. His shooting numbers are what makes him stand out. Reeves is connecting on 50.2 percent of his overall field goals, 43.1 percent of his three-pointers, and 87.3 percent of his free throws. He’s inching closer and closer to the lauded 50/40/90 mark.

It’s the consistency that also shines, too. Reeves has just one single-digit scoring game this season (ironically in Kentucky’s biggest win of the season, when he scored *just* nine against North Carolina). He’s hit the 20-point mark 10 times now this season. His two-point shooting percentage is leaps and bounds better this season (56) than it was last (43.3).

Forget All-SEC — the All-American campaign is officially underway.