Antonio Reeves does not start but he is UK's second leading scorer. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Antonio Reeves deserves to be in the Kentucky starting lineup. However, I hope John Calipari doesn’t start him and continues to bring him off the bench.
Okay, I know Reeves is Kentucky’s second leading scorer at 13.4 points per game and his 53 3-pointers — and 41 percentage make rate — are the best on the team.
But Reeves has comfortably settled into his sixth man role and is really good at it. He brings offense and confidence to the game when he comes in.
UK Radio Network host Tom Leach asked Calipari about possibly putting Reeves into the starting lineup on the coach’s weekly radio show Wednesday. Calipari didn’t say he would do that and it sure sounded like the coach prefers Reeves coming off the bench.
“He’s gonna play the same minutes whether I start him or not, and part of this is you’re coaching to make sure you keep building everybody else up,” Calipari told Leah. “If I take a guy out of the lineup — like we need CJ (Fredrick) and Chris (Livingston) is coming along just like we want him to. Why screw that up?”
Okay, this is the same Livingston that Calipari “screwed up” by playing just one minute in the second half in the loss to Kansas and the same Fredrick who just can’t seem to make a 3-point shot right now.
But I agree. Kentucky has won five of its last six games and the roles seem to fit. Don’t give Livingston or Fredrick a reason to doubt themselves.
“It’s not hurt Antonio. Shoot he may have Sixth Man of the Year in the country the way he’s playing,” Calipari said. “Yeah I may start him, we could. But it would have to be something, some injury, something happened.”
Injuries would be the X factor on making a change but if the team stays healthy, just let Reeves keep rolling. He had 27 against Ole Miss, 23 against Texas A&M and 16 against Vanderbilt coming off the bench. He had just 11 against Georgia and 10 against Kansas when he just did not make some shots he normally does.
