Jeff Sheppard admits Reed is "way ahead," but Jeff leads by two national championships
Nobody loves Reed Sheppard‘s Canadian coming-out party more than his parents, Jeff and Stacey (Reed) Sheppard. A couple of former Wildcat standouts themselves, Jeff and Stacey are in Toronto for the first of many Kentucky Basketball games featuring their son, the 2023 Mr. Kentucky High School Basketball.
Today, Reed scored 18 points with eight assists and only one turnover, two rebounds and two blocks in Kentucky’s third win in as many games in Canada. The freshman guard averaged 10.6 points, 6.0 assists, 2.3 rebounds, 2.0 steals, and 1.3 blocks in GLOBL Jam’s pool play, in which Kentucky went undefeated to earn a spot in Sunday’s gold medal game. Sheppard played 23.5 minutes per contest.
During Saturday’s game versus BAL Select, Sportsnet’s Savannah Hamilton pulled Jeff Sheppard from the crowd to get his thoughts on Reed’s breakout week. First, Hamilton asked which of Reed’s talented parents taught him how to shoot. Jeff replied, “Probably Stacey. She was a much better shooter than me. She was a better all-around player than me. But we’re having a blast watching Reed play.”
Jeff even admitted Reed is better than he was 18 years old, but he still has one thing–or two things, rather–over Reed for now.
“He’s way ahead,” said the older Sheppard. “But I’m in the clubhouse with two national championships, so, hopefully, he can catch me.”
Reed Sheppard’s early potential
In the same interview, Jeff told Hamilton that he and Stacey saw the potential in Reed at a young age.
“We always knew that Reed was going to be an athlete that had a chance,” he said. “He always had a ball in his hand and loves to play sports and loves to share the ball and play with other people. So early on, we knew that he had a chance to do something special.”
So far in Canada, Reed turned heads as one of the standout players in his summer debut for his parents’ alma mater. John Calipari said Reed was the star of Kentucky’s closed-doors scrimmage earlier in the week, too.
“Reed played unbelievable, like if you were here, you said, ‘WOW,'” Calipari said Thursday night.
His overall game at this stage in his young career has caught even Reed’s biggest fans off guard. He’s played lockdown defense, distributed the ball, kept his turnovers down, gotten in passing lanes, rebounded, knocked down some shots, and even threw down a few dunks like ol’ dad.
“It’s a team game. If you can’t bring something to your team to make other people better, then you don’t have much value,” Jeff explained on the broadcast. “So, he’s learned that and it’s a great life lesson for him to apply for the rest of his life.”
Reed Sheppard and Kentucky have one more game for the rest of GLOBL Jam, Sunday night, with the gold medal on the line.
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