Father of Reed Sheppard confirms new Kentucky coach Mark Pope has been in contact
Mark Pope is officially the next head coach at Kentucky. Now, for Reed Sheppard, he has a decision to make based on how that may impact his basketball future.
Jeff Sheppard spoke on ESPN Lexington on Friday about the hiring of Pope, who was his former college teammate and roommate. With his old friend taking over the program, it’s news that his family, specially his son, Reed, will be mulling over as far as options for what’s next after his freshman season with the Wildcats under John Calipari.
Pope and Sheppard were teammates for three seasons under Rick Pitino. Pope would win one title with the program in 1996 as a senior while Sheppard was around for a pair in 1996 as a junior and then 1998 as a senior. The two are, as of today, now connected again at almost 30 years later with the circumstances being much different for the Wildcats at the moment.
Sheppard was an in-state superstar for Kentucky this past season as a freshman. Antonio Reeves led the team in scoring and Rob Dillingham was thrilling in his own way. However, it was Reed Sheppard who became the icon of this last team for UK.
Sheppard appeared in all 33 games and did so mostly as a reserve off the bench. Still, in that role that expanded, he excelled with averages of 12.5 points, 4.5 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.5 steals. He was unbelievably efficient too at 53.6% shooting from the field, 52.1% from three, and 83.1% from the charity stripe.
Sheppard did all of that after coming out of North Laurel High School. He is a native of London, Kentucky, which is just an hour and a half outside of Lexington. He was still a four-star but came in as a less-heralded member of a No. 1 recruiting class. Still, he ended up having the best year as National Freshman of the Year and SEC Freshman of the Year.
That success also has put him right at the top of the talk for the upcoming, 2024 NBA Draft. In a weaker draft class, Sheppard has chance to hear his name in the Top-10, if not the top-five. That would mean a pro future and a financial choice that might be too much to pass up on.
Coming back to college for a sophomore season will be a tough sell for Sheppard, regardless of the coach. When it was Calipari, the pressure of the state would have been on him to come back make what felt like a make or break year work out. With Pope, there’d be similar duress to return in order to help the new coach transition and have a great first year that people can buy in on.
Sheppard’s choice could very well determine what kind of outlook next season will have at Kentucky. Pope is already putting in the work to potentially bring him back, though, according to Jeff Sheppard.