Vicky Graff Photo
Antonio Reeves is going to be at the Final Four in Phoenix but he’s not going to be playing in the Final Four like he hoped — and Kentucky fans hoped before the Cats lost to Oakland in their first NCAA game.
Reeves made 84 3-pointers and hit 44.7 percent from 3 while averaging 20.2 points per game for UK last season. That’s why he has been picked to compete in the Hanes Men’s 3-Point Championship as part of the State Farm Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championship at the Final Four at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix on Thursday at 9 p.m. EST on ESPN.
Twenty-four of the nation’s best women’s and men’s college basketball players will compete in the events. The winners of the Hanes Men’s and Women’s 3-Point Championships will compete in the Skechers Battle of the Champions.
If Reeves is on, and he usually is, he can be terrific in this competition. In 156 career games at Illinois State and Kentucky, he made 306 3-pointers and scored 2,350 points. He made 165 3-pointers in two years at UK.
Reeves shot 51.2 percent from the field and 86.3 percent from the free-throw line this season and was the only Power 5 player to average at least 1.5 made 3-pointers and hit at least .49 percent from the field, .435 from 3-point range and .865 at the foul line during these season.
Former Wildcats who have also participated in the Final Four 3-point shootout are Gerald Fitch (2004), Scott Padgett (1999), Travis Ford (1994) and Davion Mintz (2022). Chuck Hayes (2005) is the only Kentucky player to participate in the dunk challenge portion of Thursday’s events.
The UK All-American scored in double figures in all but one game this season and had 20 games of 20 or more points. Oscar Tshiebwe is the only other player at UK under coach John Calipari to have that many 20-point games in one season.
2 Responses
I’ll take him..
Why not invite BOTH of the UK players who shot high % 3’s ???
Does the selection committee have difficulty with math. Reed Sheppard MADE OVER 50% of his 3’s and was voted the Most Outstanding Freshmen player of the year, LEADING the team in 3-pt FG % and just for good measure led UK in ASSISTS (the major sign of a TEAMmate who does not focus on waiting to get the ball for a shot) and STEALS (2nd All-Time in season steals @ UK. Only Rajon Rondo (not good enough to start some games when the first double digit loser coach had a blank stare on the sideline) had more steals in a season and Ronodo was not limited to only 1 game in each post-season tourney.
Inquiring minds want to know the reason for skipping the higher 3-pt FG% shooter?
Why not invite BOTH of the UK players?