John Calipari: Antonio Reeves "was worried about the wrong stuff" before returning to UK

Antonio Reeves coming back for a second season at Kentucky might have been the most important move of the entire offseason for the program. It’s not every day a head coach can return a player who averaged 15.7 points per game against SEC competition the year prior, which included a 37-point explosion on the road against one of the conference’s better squads.

If fans needed any proof of just how critical bringing back Reeves is going to be for 2023-24, this past week in Canada was more than enough. The fifth-year sharpshooter was named the GLOBL Jam Tournament MVP after putting up 23.0 points per game (which led the team by a significant margin) across 28.3 minutes.

But even more impressive was the efficiency with which he poured in buckets. Reeves shot just a hair under 58 percent overall from the floor and was a red-hot 56.3 percent from beyond the arc (18-32). Eight of his made three-pointers came in a single outing. Every time he touched the ball, a clearly more confident version of Reeves was hunting for looks. Each ensuing shot felt like it was going to find the bottom of the net — more often than not, it did.

It wasn’t always a forgone conclusion that Reeves would return to Kentucky though. He was serious with his intent to make it in the NBA during the pre-draft process, but never received the feedback that would push him to take that step. Instead, he announced that he would return to college, but didn’t immediately say where to. Rumors of a potential transfer grew louder. It was discovered that he was taking summer classes at his previous school, Illinois State.

Why, exactly, didn’t he announce a return to Kentucky from the jump? That’s something we’ll likely never know the answer to. But we are slowly learning some of the reasons why he seriously considered entering the transfer portal as a graduate student. Following the Wildcats’ gold medal-winning performance against Team Canada on Sunday night, John Calipari hinted that it had to do with so much young talent coming into the fold.

“He was worried about the wrong stuff,” Calipari said about Reeves. “When you have five of the freshmen that we have and you’re finding out they’re really good. ‘So what’s gonna happen to me?’ What? You’re the vet. What do you mean what’s happening to you? So, he did the right stuff. Proud of him and he’s playing good.”

It’s not difficult to understand Reeves’ logic if that were the case. Now 22 years old, he’s on the tail end of his college career. The next step is to turn pro and make a living out of playing basketball. But after failing to make any big boards ahead of the 2023 NBA Draft, it was clear he had aspects of his game to work on. It would understandably be, in theory, harder to showcase any improvement in those areas with so many talented, young guards — DJ Wagner, Rob Dillingham, and Reed Sheppard among them — coming into the fold to play a similar position.

But the last week in Canada quickly destroyed that argument. As good as the freshmen might be, they aren’t better than Reeves is right now. None of them will be “stealing” his minutes away. If anything, Reeves will likely be among the Wildcats’ leaders in minutes this season — his three-level scoring abilities will make it tough for Calipari to keep him off the court. His veteran presence off the court will be equally as important, too.

It’s only mid-July, so we’ll have to wait and see how the roles play out once the season begins. But Reeves established himself as Kentucky’s go-to scorer in Canada, much like he was for most of last season. Playing next to so many talented freshmen doesn’t look to be any potential hindrance to his game. If anything, it allows him to feed off them and get in a better position to score. That behind-the-scenes competition is leading to early on-court success.