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Former Wildcat Reed Sheppard Looking to Maximize a Potential Starting Role for the Houston Rockets

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Kentucky guard Reed Sheppard celebrates after beating No. 8 Miami 95-73.
UK Athletics

Reed Sheppard, coming off of a historic season with the Wildcats where he shot over 50 percent from both the field and beyond the arc, while also averaging 2.5 steals on the defensive side of the ball, was selected with the third overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets.

Coming into the season, many experts and those who knew the of the current roster anticipated Sheppard to not be as involved as a typical top-three pick would be, and that stood throughout the 2024-2025 season.

Sheppard would only start in three games for the Rockets during the season, mostly due to injury in the backcourt. He served as one of the final men off of the bench, earning more minutes per game as the season progressed. The former Wildcat shined early in the G League however, averaging 30.7 points per game along with 8.3 assists per game in three appearances.

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He would appear in the playoffs several times, but didn’t tally much of anything in garbage time, ultimately not scoring once in Houston’s seven-game series against the Golden State Warriors.

As the offseason progressed, the Rockets shipped off future talent Jalen Green and a package for the Phoenix Suns’ Kevin Durant, opening a gap of minutes at the guard position with the departure.

In addition and unfortunately, as announced on Sept. 22 by ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Rockets’ starting point guard Fred VanVleet suffered a torn ACL, which is believed to be a season-ending injury.

There’s not much of a positive to take out when losing a leader on the court to such a devastating injury, but for Sheppard, this presents itself as an opportunity to step in as a permanent starter for the Rockets.

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Obviously, we don’t know if Houston will just simply plug Sheppard in as the starter just yet, given its attempts of playing forward Amen Thompson at the point in the past. Although, one would assume that a lineup with both Sheppard and Thompson on the court at the same time would be beneficial, given their defensive arsenal and offensive abilities.

In Sheppard’s three starts last season he averaged 19.7 points per game along with 4.7 assists, scoring a career-high 25 points against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who eventually went on to win the NBA Championship.

The potential starting lineup, with Sheppard as the point guard, would likely look like this:

Point Guard – Reed Sheppard (4.4 PPG, 1.5 RPG, 1.4 APG)

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Shooting Guard – Amen Thompson (14.1 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 3.8 APG)

Small Forward – Kevin Durant (26.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 4.2 APG)

Power Forward – Jabari Smith Jr. (12.2 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 1.1 APG)

Center – Alperen Şengün (19.1 PPG, 10.3 RPG, 4.9 APG)

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(All averages from the 2024-2025 season)

With the addition of Durant and the expectations of Thompson and Şengün after last year’s improvements, the Rockets were anticipating to make a deep playoff run way before the season started. Now, with VanVleet’s injury, Sheppard may be tasked with leading this explosive offense in his second professional season.

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Tonie Morgan Breaks Assist Record, No. 18 Kentucky Back in Win Column

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Morgan Simmons | UK Athletics

The No. 18 Kentucky Wildcats (19-7, 6-6 SEC) put away Texas A&M (9-11, 2-9 SEC) in one of the most dominating conference wins UK has had this season, winning 75-55 on Thursday, Feb. 12.

The Wildcats, before the dominant win in Historic Memorial Coliseum, had dropped three straight losses in a row, two to top 10 opponents.

Tonie Morgan Makes History

The long and overdue victory wasn’t the only reason for celebration for blue and white fans, as in the first quarter of the game point guard Tonie Morgan dished away five assists, breaking the all-time Kentuckys women’s basketball single-season assist record.

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The record now stands with Morgan at an impressive 218 assists.

The previous record was held for just one year by Georgia Amoore, who set the record in her sole season wearing Kentucky blue.

Morgan finished with 19 points and 8 assists, and one of the nation’s top assist per game leaders now has four games to add on to her new record.

A Cautious Future

With only four games left in the season, it’s of the utmost importance that the Wildcats play smart and grind for every win they can.

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No. 14 Ole Miss, No. 5 Vanderbilt and No. 3 South Carolina, could all very well defeat Kentucky, making this final stretch telling of what the Wildcats’ postseason expectations will look like.

Arguably, the most important precaution for Kentucky is to make sure its players recover. Clara Strack, in particular, who in the win versus Texas A&M went down in the first quarter with a left knee injury, is someone who needs to be taken care of.

Strack came back just a few minutes after checking out and played the rest of the game, but you can never be too cautious.

Losing your star center due to fatigue or injury is something that can derail the postseason plans.

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Up next for the Wildcats is a home game against No. 14 Ole Miss (20-5, 7-3 SEC) on Sunday, Feb. 15. Tip is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. ET inside Historic Memorial Coliseum and the game will also be streaming on SEC Network.

KY Insider will be there for in-game coverage.

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No. 18 Kentucky Suffers Second Straight Loss to Top Ten Opponent

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Morgan Simmons | UK Athletics

The No. 18 Kentucky Wildcats (18-7, 5-6 SEC) are off to a rough start in the month of February, losing on Monday, Feb. 9 against No. 4 Texas (23-2, 8-2 SEC) by a score of 64-53.

Kentucky has now lost five of its last six games, including three ranked losses against No. 17 Tennessee, No. 7 Vanderbilt and now No. 4 Texas.

Loss in Austin

Yet again, the Wildcats had a night where nobody could successfully play their role.

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Tonie Morgan finished with 12 points and four assists, yet tied Teonni Key for a team-high six turnovers.

Morgan would go the entire second half without an assist, a feat she has only done a handful of times throughout her college career. However, the blame in basketball never falls on just one person alone

Jordan Obi had zero points on Monday, and in her 28 minutes of play, her biggest contribution to the team was four rebounds. Obi has been in a slump for a few nights now, only recording seven points in the last three games combined.

When looking at the front court, Key recorded an eight-point and three-rebound game and star Clara Strack only had 14 points and seven rebounds on the night. All of these numbers are well below both their averages.

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To round out the subpar team performance, Amelia Hassett got her only three points from a made three in the first quarter, not scoring again in Austin.

The only bright spot for the Wildcats was Asia Boone, who shot 4-6 from three-point territory, finishing with a team-high 16 points. Boone was the Cats’ save and grace as she was the only one in blue and white to record any points in the second quarter.

Moving Forward

Kentucky can likely kiss any chance at a double-bye goodbye after this performance. For both the SEC Tournament and March Madness, the Wildcats have very little room for error if they want favorable seeding.

To get those seeds, they will have to have dominant wins in these last five games of the season, with matchups against No. 14 Ole Miss, No. 5 Vanderbilt and No. 3 South Carolina coming up.

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Now, the Big Blue Nation will watch as the countdown to tournament time inches clo

The Wildcats next matchup is against Texas A&M on Thursday Feb. 12th at 6:30 p.m. inside Historic Memorial Coliseum streaming on SEC Network

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Nick Mingione “Has a Plan” for Matt Ponatoski, Discusses Working With Two Sports

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Media Day was held for No. 18 Kentucky Baseball on Tuesday, Feb. 3, and head coach Nick Mingione was highly optimistic for his 10th Wildcats team and their developments throughout the offseason.

The 2x SEC Coach of the Year discussed managing the tough ask of acquiring a top 25 recruiting class and a top 10 portal class, his pride and appreciation for BBN – as he glosses over some of the other successful head coaches in Lexington and MLB prospect Tyler Bell improving as a player more than anybody thought he would.

One of the bigger topics that came around during Mingione’s press conference was about incoming freshman Matt Ponatoski, a two-sport star from Archbishop Moeller in Cincinnati, OH, who was praised heavily as both a quarterback, a pitcher, and a hitter during his recruiting stages.

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You rarely see young athletes succeed in multiple sports the way Ponatoski did, but as he picked up Ohio’s Gatorade Player of the Year in both football and baseball during his junior year, Kentucky took the chance and brought him in under two coaches.

It’s hard enough for a young athlete coming into college to accept the pressure of two SEC-team workloads, but what about the coaches who have to work with him?

Fortunately, Mingione and the newly hired Will Stein (who recruited Ponatoski during his time at Oregon) look to be working together diligently to make sure the dual prospect succeeds in every position he plays.

“You just have to take your daddy goggles off or your mommy goggles off and just ask some people that you trust,” Mingione said. “The game of baseball and football has not told Matt Ponatoski to stop playing one or the other.”

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Kentucky opens its season with three games in three days at UNC Greensboro. The first matchup is stamped for Friday, Feb. 13 at 4:00 p.m. ET.

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