Reed Sheppard led the comeback with a nod to Dad and a message to Cal

Dressed in his dad’s old uniform, Reed Sheppard helped pull Kentucky back out of the slop at Arkansas. The freshman guard scored 14 points in the Wildcats’ second-half charge, including one of the plays of the night, a steal-and-slam to give Kentucky its first lead in the SEC rivalry game.

Fast-break @reed_sheppard SLAM 🔨 pic.twitter.com/NFyRBXlCwm

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) January 28, 2024

Kentucky’s throwback uniforms weren’t Reed’s only nod to his dad in Fayetteville on Saturday. Jeff Sheppard also showed the Razorbacks a steal-and-slam in Bud Walton Arena back in the ’90s.

https://t.co/DkvhuWb9fo pic.twitter.com/JQAFj3WPtk

— KSR (@KSRonX) January 28, 2024

Beyond the game-changing dunk, Sheppard, the young one, hit both of his 3-point tries, a couple of layups, and two late free throws in the second half while running the point in place of DJ Wagner, who moved off the ball when his left-handed scoop wasn’t falling. Kentucky was also without its other point guard, Rob Dillingham, who was out with an illness.

With Sheppard leading the offense, he and Antonio Reeves combined for 28 of Kentucky’s 39 points after halftime, shooting a combined 5-for-7 on 3-pointers. Reeves led all scorers in the game with 24.

After the game, Calipari explained the decision to put the ball in Sheppard’s hands, saying, “He was making some better decisions and all those things.”

“Stick with me.”

Though the second half was the difference-maker, the first half was messy for Sheppard and the Wildcats. Before halftime, he shot 0-for-5 from the field with a couple of fouls, while the team scored only 24 first-half points, marking back-to-back games without scoring more than 25 points before halftime. A John Calipari-coached Kentucky team had never done that until this week when the No. 1 offense in America scored 25 and 24 points in back-to-back first halves.

Last week, Calipari did not allow Sheppard to play through his mistakes in the loss to the Gamecocks. “He had the deer in the headlight look, and I didn’t go back to him,” Calipari explained on Saturday.

Calipari told Tom Leach, “I came up to him and said, “If that ever happens again, you look at me in the eye and say, ‘stick with me, Coach, just stick with me.'”

Calipari stuck with Sheppard in the second half at Arkansas once he found a lineup that worked. Led by Sheppard, Kentucky clawed back to steal and slam home the road win.