There was one bright spot in Kentucky’s latest unthinkable loss. And he went uncelebrated.
With Kentucky’s shocking loss to Oakland now more than a week in the past, the conversation since has been dominated by John Calipari’s job status, which of the Wildcats’ underclassmen might return next season, and the overall direction of the UK basketball program. Lost once again in all the talk — overlooked one last time — has been Antonio Reeves. The unassuming, 6-foot-6 senior guard from Chicago played his 156th and final college basketball game last Thursday night in Pittsburgh. Like most of the games before it during this transformative season, he played it very well. It could have been a redemption story. A year earlier, Reeves had the worst game of his basketball life on the biggest stage of his career. In that 75-69 loss to Kansas State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, he missed his first 14 shots — nine of them 3-pointers — feeling the burden of needing to score for a banged-up UK team that didn’t have much perimeter punch by the time March arrived. His final line — 1-for-15 — lingered as a disappointing end to a largely disappointing season.
Reeves was down in the moment but — shooter’s mentality and all — turned the page on that terrible night. He said at the beginning of this season that he didn’t want to dwell on that game, though he looked forward to getting another shot at the NCAA Tournament in his final college season. Along the way, he transformed from a quiet, complementary scorer to a bonafide star, even if he remained under-appreciated for much of Kentucky’s 2023-24 run. UK’s freshmen — Reed Sheppard, Rob Dillingham and others — got most of the attention inside the state and nationally, but Reeves kept plugging along, a steady and efficient scorer who was seemingly always there when the Wildcats needed a bucket. As the season progressed, Reeves hit 2,000 points for his college career. He then became one of the few 1,000-point scorers in Calipari’s 15-year tenure with the program, whose stars have mostly been one-and-done players over that time, not sticking around long enough to hit that mark. The program launched an All-American campaign in his honor.
Reeves finished the regular season with seven consecutive games of 20 points or more, the first UK player since Jamal Murray, who played for the Cats eight years ago, to achieve such a run. Kentucky went 6-1 in those games — a buzzer-beater loss at LSU the only defeat — and big wins over Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee appeared to show these Wildcats were peaking at the right time, with Reeves leading the way. As if anyone needed a reminder of his importance to this young UK team, the SEC Tournament provided one. Reeves was mired in foul trouble, played a season-low 18 minutes as a result, saw his 20-plus-point scoring spree stopped, and the Cats went home early with a loss to Texas A&M in the quarterfinals. “We need him,” Calipari acknowledged after that one.
Reeves’ teammates and coaches spent the last few weeks of the season celebrating his accomplishments and lauding his improvement, the transition from uncomfortable first-year transfer to supremely confident second-year Wildcat now complete. If there were any doubters by the time March rolled around, they hadn’t been paying attention. The only thing left was to get the bad taste of “1-for-15” out of his mouth.
The day before Kentucky’s 80-76 loss to 14-seeded Oakland in Pittsburgh, two UK players who grew up there — Tre Mitchell and Adou Thiero — sat next to Reeves for the pregame press conference, the first day of interviews in what they thought would be a sustained run through March. They were asked to explain why Reeves didn’t get more attention for his great season. Mitchell was a first-year Wildcat — a transfer from West Virginia — but he was also the only other scholarship upperclassmen on the team, joining Reeves as a “big brother” to the younger players. “He’s humble. He’s a humble beast,” Mitchell said. “He’s not a guy that’s going to come out here and brag or seek attention. But on top of that it could be just because we have had some young guys with really big names, and some people are focused on that. But at the end of the day when you look at it, this kid gives us production night in and night out. He gives us leadership, and, you know, he does it with the same look on his face the whole time.
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