Forget steals, Reed Sheppard just hit another defensive milestone

At this point, Reed Sheppard‘s knack for basketball thievery is well-known. Through 28 games, he has 76 steals and is well on pace to surpass Rajon Rondo’s single-season record of 87. He had two steals on Tuesday night against Mississippi State as a casual add-on to his 32 points and dramatic game-winner.

The way Sheppard was on fire against the Bulldogs, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility he purposely left 0.5 seconds on the clock after hitting the go-ahead shot just so he could pad his steals numbers, as he stole the ensuing in-bounds pass for the game’s final exclamation point.

However, amid the career-high in points and team-highs in rebounds, assists, and steals, Sheppard recorded two blocks on the night giving him 22 on the season. This passes Tony Delk for second in Kentucky history for blocks by a guard in a single season.

Sure, Anthony Davis‘s overall record of 186 is likely safe, but when it comes to guards, there are not too many players in the history of the program better than Reed Sheppard. The only guard with more blocks in a single season is DeAndre Liggins, who had 28 rejections back in 2010-11.

Liggins accomplished that total in 38 games, as the 2011 team went to the Final Four. If Sheppard matches his average of 0.8 blocks per game, he would need nine more games to surpass Liggins, which would be 37 games and a berth in either the Elite Eight or Sweet 16, depending on how the ‘Cats fare in the SEC Tournament.

For further comparison, Liggins had 46 steals that year, and Rondo had just eight blocks during the 2004-05 season, the year he set the steals record.

Sheppard excels at rejecting 3-point jumpers

Perhaps the craziest Reed Sheppard shock-blocking stat of them all, though, is that out of Sheppard’s 22 blocks this season, seven (yes, seven) of them have come on opponents’ 3-point shot attempts. How often do you see a 3-point shot attempt blocked? I didn’t even think that was possible by someone under seven feet tall. And yet, roughly one-third of the six-foot-three-inch guard’s near record-setting number of rejections have been on 3s. And for a kicker, one of his blocks was on a long 2-pointer in the Arkansas game.

Attaining the number of blocked 3-point attempts by the rest of the Kentucky guards with at least 15 rejections in a season would take more film and caffeine than I have access to, but a scan through the memory Roladex tells me no other guard has more than Sheppard, so we’ll go with that.

Simply put, Sheppard’s uncanny ability to get a hand on the ball, whether on a shot, pass, or dribble, makes him one of the most impressive stock (steals + blocks) guards to ever don a Kentucky uniform.

Kentucky Block Leaders Among Guards

Player	Season	Blocks
DeAndre Liggins	2010-11	28
Reed Sheppard	2023-24	22*
Tony Delk	1993-94	21
Malik Monk	2016-17	19
John Wall	2009-10	19
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	2017-18	18
Wayne Turner	1997-98	18
Derrick Jasper	2007-08	17
Rex Chapman	1987-88	16
Cason Wallace	2022-23	15
Archie Goodwin	2012-13	15
Rex Chapman	1986-87	15