Antonio Reeves Only SEC Player on Final List for Jerry West Award

Vicky Graff Photo

Kentucky coach John Calipari never expected Antonio Reeves to be UK’s best perimeter defender this season.

“Last year it is who is left, you got him Antonio and just try to stay in front of him,” Calipari said. “He has gotten physical. He plays hard. He is just so much better. I am  proud of him.”

Reeves has also been UK’s most consistent offensive player averaging 19.5 points per game and shooting career-bests 50.2 percent overall, 43.1 percent from 3 and 87.3 percent at the foul line.

Tuesday he was selected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Top 10 list for the 2024 Jerry West Award. The award is named for Naismith Hall of Famer and 1959 NCAA Final Four Most Valuable Player Jerry West and Reeves is the only SEC player on the list. He was also named to the John Wooden Award Late Season Top 20.

Reeves has scored in double figures in all but one game this season and reached the 20-point mark in 10 games going into tonight’s game against Florida.

He is just the second UK player — Oscar Tshiebwe was the first — under Calipari to have 20 career 20-or-more scoring efforts and seven of those have been in road games.

Reeves scored 30 points in a win at Louisville and followed that  with 27 against Illinois State. Only Tshiebwe (4), Malik Monk (4) and Jamal Murray (3) have had multiple 30-point games n the John Calipari era at Kentucky.

He now has over 2,000 career points and now 142 more to reach 1,000 at UK.

Against Georgia, he eclipsed 2,000 career points combining his time at Illinois State and at Kentucky. As a Wildcat, he’s just 142 points shy of reaching the 1,000-point plateau.

Fans can support their favorite players in the remaining rounds by participating in voting starting Friday at hoophallawards.com. The Fan Vote will count as one committee vote during the finalist selection process.