Antonio Reeves focusing on recovery ahead of postseason run

Antonio Reeves knows better than most what it feels like to take on a massive minutes load. Before he even got to Kentucky, when he was a junior at Illinois State in 2021-22, he averaged 34.9 minutes per outing across a 33-game season. To help put that in perspective, during the John Calipari era, only three Wildcats played more minutes per game than Reeves did in his final season with the Redbirds: Brandon Knight (35.9 MPG) in 2010-11 and Jamal Murray (35.2 MPG) and Tyler Ulis (36.8 MPG) in 2015-16.

Reeves isn’t exactly close to those numbers across his first season with Kentucky (he’s averaging 27.2 MPG in 31 games played), but down the stretch of the schedule, his playing time has soared out of necessity. Not only have injuries struck the Kentucky backcourt, but Reeves has also flat-out proven himself as an elite college-level scorer that needs to be on the floor.

Over the last seven games of the regular season, Reeves averaged 35.1 minutes per game for the ‘Cats, including four games with at least 38 minutes and two where he didn’t leave the court for a single second. His scoring has shot up to 17.6 points per game on a shooting split of 43.5/40.4/75.9 as a result, but that’s a ton of minutes being carried on his shoulders. He’s not playing against mid-major competition anymore, either.

Depending on what happens with Kentucky’s various injuries — Cason Wallace‘s lower leg, Sahvir Wheeler‘s ankle, CJ Fredrick‘s rib — Reeves could be forced to play a similar amount of minutes entering the postseason, which begins for the ‘Cats on Friday night in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. Even if those guys all return at some point, they likely won’t be at full strength for the rest of the season. Reeves will have his hands full no matter what.

If Kentucky wants to make a run to the conference championship on Sunday, they’ll need to win three games in three days. Which means Reeves will have to go out and likely play upwards of 30 minutes in all of them. With that in mind, he’s mentally preparing himself for that stretch, paying extra close attention to his recovery process.

“It’s hard, I’m not gonna lie,” Reeves told reporters on Wednesday. “After these previous games, my body’s aching the next day. I just have to understand that rest is important, recovery is important after these games. I need to just be able to do yoga or whatever it is to get ready for the next one. I know I played last year in these type of games. I won a game then had to play the next day. I already know how my body is gonna feel.”

As he mentioned, Reeves is no stranger to this type of minutes load. He played 38 minutes then 37 the next day during Illinois State’s two-day stint in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament this time last year. He’ll be prepared for it again this season — albeit against tougher competition — but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be a challenge. There will be an emphasis on his recovery process over the next few weeks.

“Playing these amount of minutes that I’m playing right now, I have to be able to do those things every day,” Reeves said. “Be in the training room every day because it can actually take a toll on your body, just playing that amount of minutes. It’s very important that after practice I get in the training room for at least an hour just to work on my body.”

With so many other backcourt pieces on the mend, Calipari is going to need everything he can get out of Reeves. This situation isn’t too far off from what happened last season when Kellan Grady averaged over 36 minutes per contest across a 21-game stretch for the Wildcats as injuries once again ravaged the backcourt. But Grady was slowly worn down by the end of it, and it showed in March.

Luckily, Reeves hasn’t played the same amount of minutes for as long as Grady did. With proper recovery, he should be ready to put everything on the line for the ‘Cats.