NCAA Profile: Jeff Sheppard

Mostly every player that has donned the blue and white is beloved by the Big Blue Nation. This is especially true if you were able to help raise one of the eight National Championship banners that hang in Rupp Arena. One of those guys is Jeff Sheppard. Sheppard is one of those truly special players in Kentucky Basketball history because he was on both the ’96 and ’98 Championship teams. The NCAA has started a “Where are they now?” segment on their website, and the most recent story was about Sheppard and his life after Kentucky basketball.

After leading the Kentucky Wildcats to the 1998 NCAA championship with his Most Outstanding Player performance, Jeff Sheppard played four years of professional basketball before settling down to raise a family in London, Ky., which is located 70 miles south of the Lexington’s UK campus.

Sheppard and his wife, the former Stacey Reed, met at Kentucky where she also played basketball for the Wildcats. The couple has two children — a 12-year-old daughter Madison and an eight-year-old son Reed. Madison, a seventh-grader, plays on her middle school girls’ basketball team, while Reed plays on an AAU team — the Kentucky Playmakers, coached by Sheppard.

The Sheppards own and operate a company called 15inc., which supplies organizations, groups and business with the latest in apparel and promotional items. “If you can put a logo on it, we can get it for you!” their web site claims.

Stacy is also in full-time ministry as the director of the Backpack Club, which feeds between 1,000 and 1,400 kids weekly in the Sheppard’s community. The Sheppards are frequent speakers at schools, basketball camps and clinics, and are active within their church and community.

Give this article a read… and if you have a Jeff Sheppard story, or favorite moment, feel free to let us hear it in the comments section.