Four-star Reed Sheppard Discusses Recruitment, Visits, Kentucky Offer
Reed Sheppard, one of the best combo guards in the class of 2023, already has a couple college visits under his belt: Louisville and Virginia. The London, KY native also discusses an offer from the Kentucky Wildcats, his parents’ alma mater.
Sheppard’s Thoughts on the Louisville Cardinals
Sheppard’s first ever college visit only a couple hours drive to Louisville.
“That one was fun because being from Kentucky…you hear about Louisville,” he said. “Growing up, I always knew who Louisville was and always watched them play. That was the first college campus I’ve actually walked around and looked at closely. The coaches and staff are all tremendous people. Their facilities are ridiculous. The Yum Center is unbelievable. It looks like an NBA arena.”
The Kentucky and Louisville rivalry runs deep for most fans, but Sheppard says his parents “definitely put it to the side.” Both of Sheppard’s parents attended and played at Kentucky. “They’re letting the decision be up to me,” he says.
Sheppard’s Thoughts on the Virginia Cavaliers
Next, Sheppard traveled to Charlottesville to see Viriginia.
“If you know anything about Virginia and college basketball, then you’ve heard about Coach Bennett. He’s an unbelievable dude. He’s all truth. You can always count on him to spit the truth and straight facts to you. Their campus and their faculties are all extremely nice. All the coaches and staff there are great people and all care for you and they’re all there to make you better.”
Sheppard’s Thoughts on an offer from Kentucky
Sheppard was raised in a ‘Kentucky Wildcats home’. His father, Jeff Sheppard, was a two-time national champion with the Wildcats (1996, 1998), and later went on to play professionally briefly. His mother, Stacey Reed Sheppard, finished as a top-10 all-time leading scorer for the Wildcats. It’s no secret that Kentucky is the heavy favorite to land Reed, but he’s not ready to shut his recruitment down just yet. “I’m going to take my time with the decision. At the end of the day, it’ll just be where I feel most at home and my coaches and teammates feel like family.”
Only about an hour away, Reed does plan to take an official visit to Kentucky at some point. “That’s something that will be cool to me. To be able to see the tradition that Kentucky has and to look at it from a different perspective. I’ve always just been a fan…but now being able to go and see what I need to look for to figure out if I would want to go to the University of Kentucky.”
Sheppard also mentioned he’s been hearing from both Michigan and Gonzaga as of late, but they have yet to offer.
The only college visit he has planned is to Indiana on August 2nd, where the Hoosiers will host him and his AAU teammate, Gabe Cupps.