Kentucky
Reed Sheppard, No. 16 Kentucky roll into matchup with Arkansas
Reed Sheppard’s scoring outputs were measly during a three-game stretch until No. 16 Kentucky traveled to Mississippi State.
Sheppard broke out of his slump with a career-best 32 points and made the tiebreaking basket with 0.5 seconds left on Tuesday night. Now he will ride a wave of confidence into Saturday’s Southeastern Conference game against Arkansas in Lexington, Ky.
Sheppard, a freshman guard, averaged just 6.3 points during the trio of games before the breakout performance in the 91-89 win over Mississippi State. He made 11 of 14 field-goal attempts, including four 3-pointers, and was stellar all-around with seven assists, five rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots.
The Wildcats (20-8, 10-5 SEC) had to recover from a 13-point, second-half deficit to knock off the Bulldogs. And it meant a great deal to Sheppard to be the one who knocked down the winning shot.
His parents, Jeff and Stacey, both played basketball at Kentucky. The former Stacey Reed played for the Kentucky women from 1991-95 and still ranked second in career steals (309) and sixth in career assists (442) entering this season.
Jeff Sheppard played on two national championship teams for Kentucky (1993-98) and is deeply beloved in the Bluegrass State after being named Most Outstanding Player of the 1998 Final Four.
“It was really cool,” Reed Sheppard said of making the decisive shot. “Growing up as a little kid, I always wanted to play at Kentucky. So, going out there and getting the game-winning shot for Kentucky was really special for me. This group of guys is really close on and off the court.”
Sheppard is third on the Wildcats in scoring at 12.5 points per game and leads the team in assists (4.3) and his tenacious defense has led him to compile an SEC-leading 76 steals.
“He plays to win,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said of Sheppard. “He’s not playing not to lose. He’s steady.”
Antonio Reeves ranks third in the SEC with a 19.9 scoring average. Backup Rob Dillingham is second on the Wildcats with a 14.8 average.
Arkansas (14-14, 5-10) is enduring a rough season but Khalif Battle recently emerged to put together the school’s best two-game scoring stretch in 51 years.
Battle has 78 points in the past two games — a career-best 42 against Missouri followed by 36 points in Tuesday’s 85-82 home loss to Vanderbilt. The last Arkansas player with a better two-game stretch was Martin Terry, who had 82 in 1973.
Battle tallied six rebounds, three assists and three steals in the loss to the Commodores. But he also had six turnovers.
“As bad as we were as a whole, including myself, we were one possession away,” Battle said. “That’s the part that’s the hardest. One more stop, one more shot, one more rebound.
“That’s the part that’s the hardest to cope with right now. It’s just tough.”
Battle implored his teammates not to let up. The Razorbacks’ only way into the NCAA Tournament is by winning the SEC tourney and they can only get there by raising their level of play.
“We’ve still got basketball left, still got the conference tournament,” Battle said. “The work does not stop. We’ve just got to keep on pushing.”
The splurge improved Battle’s scoring average to 12.7, second on the Razorbacks behind Tramon Mark (16.8).
Kentucky has won 10 of the past 13 meetings, including a 63-57 road triumph on Jan. 27. Reeves scored 24 points for the Wildcats.
–Field Level Media
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Over the weekend, it was reported that the Kentucky Wildcats and coach Mark Pope had interest in former James Madison forward Justin McBride. Now, per Jacob Polacheck of Kentucky Sports Radio, McBride will take a visit to Lexington.
The report states that McBride will visit with Kentucky on Wednesday, Apr. 22. He had previously stated that he wanted to visit, but had to clear up some transcript issues first. It appears that things are worked out there now.
McBride is a 6’8″, 230 lb forward who has versatility. He averaged 15.3 points and 5.6 rebounds last season, but also made 40% of his three-point attempts, making him the kind of stretch big Pope likes to use. He could start, or be a valuable player off the bench.
Pope needs some recruiting wins, and he needs some depth for next year’s team. Right now, there are still more questions than answers, and Big Blue Nation is getting restless. We will update this story after his visit and more news becomes available.
Entering the weekend, Vanderbilt baseball had gotten swept in its only SEC series in which it hadn’t won the first game.
So the Commodores had a tough task in a series they badly needed after dropping the opener 5-2 on a walk-off grand slam after Vanderbilt’s best healthy starter, Connor Fennell, pitched well.
But the Commodores (24-17, 9-9 SEC) rebounded to take the series with an 8-7 win in the second game and a 13-6 win in the finale April 19. They did that despite not having any pitcher go more than three innings in either game. Though the pitching was still shaky at times — they issued more free passes than strikeouts in both of the wins — they worked out of enough jams to let the offense go to work.
Here’s what we learned from the series.
Will Hampton proves an unlikely hero for the offense
Vanderbilt got strong performances from a few of its typical top performers, including Braden Holcomb (6-for-13, four doubles) and Brodie Johnston (4-for-12, two home runs, three walks). But one of the biggest hits of the series came from the unlikeliest of sources.
Logan Johnstone was held out of the finale after colliding with Mike Mancini in Game 2, and in his place coach Tim Corbin opted to go with redshirt freshman Will Hampton in left field. Hampton had recorded just six college plate appearances, all of which were in nonconference games.
But Hampton reached in all three of his plate appearances against Kentucky, first on a single, then a walk. In the sixth inning, with the score tied, he came up with the bases loaded and two outs and blasted a grand slam, giving Vanderbilt its first lead.
Tyler Baird learns the ups and downs of being a closer
Freshman Tyler Baird has been Vanderbilt’s closer for the past three weeks, recording his first save April 2 against Texas A&M. But he learned the pitfalls that can come with that role in Game 1 against Kentucky. Summoned for an eight-out save with the Commodores leading 2-1, he retired the first five batters, but loaded the bases with nobody out in the ninth. He struck out the next two batters but then gave up the walk-off grand slam.
Baird returned for Game 3, this time attempting a five-out save and coming in with runners on first and second and one out with a three-run lead in the eighth inning. He allowed both inherited runners to score, but kept the lead and then had a scoreless ninth inning after Vanderbilt scored three runs in the top of the inning.
Baird’s emergence has been key for the Commodores, and the Game 3 bounce-back was especially important.
Vanderbilt’s RPI shows improvement
On April 15, Vanderbilt was 95th in RPI, a mark that wasn’t going to cut it for NCAA Tournament selection. But with a road series win against a Kentucky team that started the week in the top 20 of RPI, the Commodores moved all the way up to 75th, according to Warren Nolan.
While Vanderbilt will need to keep moving up — a top-50 mark would be ideal — the series win did a lot. In the next two weeks, it will face two top-five RPI teams in Alabama and Texas, giving more opportunity to improve its standing.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
Power forward has been one of the positions that Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats have to fill with Andrija Jelavic and Mo Dioubate gone. The two players that Pope has had on campus at the power forward position are Syracuse’s Donnie Freeman and Colorado’s Sebastian Rancik. Both are really good players, but Freeman is better by a wide margin.
It has felt that entire time that Kentucky wanted Rancik as the backup to Freeman or a backup plan if they weren’t able to land Freeman. Well, Rancik just picked Florida State, so perhaps this is a sign that the Wildcats will land Freeman.
Big Blue Nation was torn on Rancik, but I do believe he would have been a really solid backup power forward. I personally didn’t want him to be the starting four for this team. It is clear that he wanted to go somewhere where he could be the guy at the four, so he will be heading to the ACC to play for FSU.
Now that Kentucky has missed on Rancik, it is very important that the Wildcats land Freeman soon. The problem with waiting on some of these players is the fact that the portal isn’t slowing down. If Pope targets two power forwards and misses on both of them, most of the good fours in the portal will be gone.
There will be some panic in Lexington if the Wildcats are not able to land Freeman, but I do believe the Wildcats are in a good spot to land the elite power forward. From the beginning, Freeman has been my top player for Kentucky in the portal, as he, plus Malachi Moreno, will give the Wildcats an elite frontcourt.
If Pope is able to land Freeman and Tyran Stokes to pair with Zoom Diallo, Alex Wilkins, Moreno, and Kam Williams, this could be the start of a really good team in Lexington. Hopefully, an announcement for where Freeman will transfer comes soon, and hopefully, this will be to play for Pope at Kentucky.
Fans of rival teams will say Pope “whiffed” on Rancik, but if this whiff was because the Wildcats are set to land Freeman soon, then it was more than worth it for Kentucky. If the Wildcats are able to land Freeman, it will officially be time for Big Blue Nation to start getting excited about the 2026-27 season. I expect a decision from Freeman to come within the next day or two.
Rancik would have been a solid backup four in Lexington but Freeman has been the guy from the beggining for this staff so if Kentucky lands him all is well. If the staff misses on Freeman not landing Rancik will look bad.
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