Telling Calipari, one and done, and what’s next. More on Reed Sheppard’s commitment.

There was a palpable sense of relief in the air of the North Laurel High School library on Saturday morning.

That’s where star basketball recruit Reed Sheppard and a small group of family and friends had congregated just minutes after the 17-year-old announced his commitment to the University of Kentucky in the school’s gymnasium a little ways down the hall.

There were soft drinks and snacks — including a white cake that said “Congrats Reed” in blue icing — and there were lots of hugs and even more smiles.

Sheppard’s mom, former UK basketball star Stacey Reed Sheppard, surveyed the scene with bright eyes that looked like they might shed a tear or two. Asked if there was a weight off of her shoulders now that her son had made his decision public, she nodded in his direction.

“I think more so for Reed than anyone,” she said. “Just because, it’s a lot on a 17-year-old boy, especially being from Kentucky and people’s expectations. He’s a different kid since he made the decision. His joy is back. His smile is back. His laughter is back. And you can just tell — around the house, watching his last couple of games on the court — you just see a little bigger pep in his step.”

Indeed, Reed was standing just a few feet away, a smile on his face as he answered questions from reporters and chatted with friends and family.

The high school junior clearly looked relieved that the public announcement portion of this day was over, that those who cared — and there were many Kentucky fans who’d never met him but still cared deeply — now knew his future plans.

Over the past several months — and especially since receiving that UK scholarship offer in July — Sheppard had been understandably guarded in his comments about the recruitment, keeping an open mind to overtures from other college coaches, not wanting to say the wrong thing. He was always polite when questioned but reserved with his answers.

On Saturday morning, the joy was coming out as he talked about his future and his past, riding to Lexington to see games with his parents as a little kid and traveling as a family to the Southeastern Conference Tournament year after year. During the recruitment, he acknowledged that he was a UK fan growing up. Of course he was, given his parents were Stacey Reed and Jeff Sheppard, two Kentucky basketball greats from the 1990s.

Feelings like that often get reset once a young player starts getting recruited, but on Saturday, he didn’t have to downplay that childhood fandom for diplomacy’s sake anymore.

“I was a huge Kentucky fan,” he conceded.

Sheppard will no doubt be an instant fan favorite once he hits Lexington as part of the 2023 recruiting class a couple of seasons from now. As far as the immense expectations that will be waiting for Sheppard in college, his mother said she and her husband have been trying to prepare Reed and his sister Madison, a senior on the Campbellsville University basketball team, for what would come next in their lives.

“Jeff and I have told both Madison and Reed — ‘You just have to be true to who you are, no matter where you are, no matter what you do. Be humble. Treat people with respect. Be appreciative.’ And when you do that, everything else works out,” she said. “People have expectations in all aspects of your life, no matter what you’re doing. But the way you treat people and the way you respond to them — those are the things that they’re going to remember far longer than how many baskets you made or where you played basketball.”

Ready for Kentucky

Yes, Reed Sheppard grew up a huge Kentucky basketball fan with famous Wildcats for parents.

But there was apparently no thought given to an immediate commitment to the Cats when John Calipari extended a scholarship offer in July.

“I mean, it felt different than any of the other offers,” Sheppard said Saturday. “But it was still really, really early. And, at that moment, I wasn’t like, ‘I want to go to Kentucky.’ I mean, yeah, it was a dream. But I didn’t know. So I just wanted to keep going through the process and keep going and visiting different places and visiting different coaches and keeping my options open.”

Sheppard ultimately took recruiting visits to Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana, Ohio State and Virginia.

After visiting all five campuses — and on his way home from the final trip to Ohio State in October — Sheppard told his father that he’d decided he wanted to play for Kentucky, pouring out all of his thoughts during the car ride back home.

Jeff Sheppard listened to what his son had to say, then told him he could go ahead and announce it the next day, if he wanted to.

Even then, Reed wasn’t ready to make it public. He wanted to take a little more time to let the decision sink in, make extra sure it was what he wanted to do. The hardest part was turning down the other college coaches that had made him a recruiting priority.

“He needed to complete the process with several schools, specifically Virginia and Louisville,” his father said. “They did a wonderful job with their recruitment. Man, you build these relationships with these coaches, and it’s very difficult. Because it can’t go wrong. He goes to Louisville, it works out great. He goes to Virginia, it works out great. He goes to Ohio State or Indiana, it works out great. He’s a blessed little boy that has an opportunity of a lifetime. And we’re happy for him.”

Jeff Sheppard said the recruitment got to a point where Reed didn’t need to go to UK any more for further validation. He just needed more points of comparison for the decision that was clearly coming.

“When he went to other places, he got more confirmation that he was supposed to go to Kentucky,” his father said. “He almost got to the point where he was like, ‘I don’t need to go to Kentucky anymore to visit. I just need to go to other places and get confirmation when I go to those places that, I’m not supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be at Kentucky.’”

Telling John Calipari

Once the decision was made, there was a hitch.

Reed was ready to get his commitment off his chest, and he wanted to tell John Calipari the news in person. The Sheppard family figured they could just call and tell the UK coaches they were going to be in town, ask if they could attend practice, and Reed could let Calipari know then. They reached out. Assistant coach Orlando Antigua texted back and said the team wasn’t practicing that day (Nov. 13, the day after the home opener against Robert Morris).

Now scrambling, Jeff Sheppard asked if the family could simply come by the basketball offices and say hello while they were in town, an excuse to see Calipari in person that he acknowledged Saturday was flimsy at best. It obviously worked out.

The UK coach was apparently overjoyed at the news, and Jeff Sheppard said they all spent about an hour in his office talking after Reed revealed his commitment. Then, the newest UK recruit spent some time on the Joe Craft Center practice court and posed for photos in a Wildcats uniform.

“It was a lot of fun,” his dad said.

The next Rex?

Jeff Sheppard is a Georgia native, but he understands why and how much Kentucky basketball fans love the in-state stars who end up playing for the Wildcats, and he said he has been appreciative of guys like Rex Chapman, Richie Farmer and John Pelphrey who have offered his son advice throughout his young career.

Sheppard said he and Reed were at a recent UK practice, and they happened to be sitting next to Chapman, who was a high school sensation in Owensboro before starring for Kentucky from 1986-88. It was yet another let-this-sink-in moment.

“I’m sitting there with Rex Chapman, who I looked up to as a player. And he’s sitting next to me, and we’ve developed a great relationship over the years,” Jeff said. “And here’s Reed sitting next to both of us. And we’re both like, ‘Is this really happening? Reed’s doing this?’ It’s just so interesting to see the progression and the opportunity that’s presented.”

Sheppard said that when his son was in the second grade, he pulled off Chapman’s flip-behind-the-back-reverse jam from the 1990 NBA Slam Dunk contest. (On a kid-sized goal, of course). Jeff texted the video to Rex, who delighted in seeing little Reed mimic his famous dunk.

“Rex has always been pulling for Reed and following him,” Jeff said. “So it’s just been really cool.”

Best in Kentucky

It has been rare for a Kentucky high school player to be good enough in the eyes of John Calipari to earn a UK scholarship offer. And, even by those standards, Sheppard is an outlier.

He’s the No. 22 overall player in the 2023 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings. Only three other Kentuckians have signed with UK in the Calipari era, and none of them came close to such a lofty national ranking: Dontaie Allen (No. 111 in the 2019 class), Derek Willis (No. 126 in 2013) and Dominique Hawkins (No. 192 in 2013). Jon Hood (No. 64 in the 2009 composite rankings) also played his entire college career for Calipari, but he actually signed with UK while Billy Gillispie was head coach.

In fact, no Kentucky high school player from inside the state has been ranked as highly as Sheppard in the history of the 247Sports composite rankings, which date back to the 2011 class.

The RSCI composite rankings date back even further, to the 1998 class, and only one such player in that span — Hopkinsville native Scotty Hopson — was ranked higher than Sheppard is now. Hopson, who signed with Tennessee, was the No. 11 recruit in the 2008 class.

A couple of other players were rising stars for Louisville high schools before heading out of state to finish their prep careers: D’Angelo Russell (No. 16 in the 2014 composite rankings) and Rajon Rondo (No. 21 in 2004).

Sheppard will be the first in-state Top 100 recruit to sign with Kentucky since Darius Miller did so as the No. 35 recruit in the 2008 composite rankings. The only other Kentucky native who was a top 50 recruit and signed with UK since 1998 was Rondo.

The feud is over?

Jeff Sheppard and John Calipari had a bit of a dust-up several years ago — near the beginning of the UK coach’s tenure in Lexington — that stemmed from some remarks the former Kentucky player made about the program’s “one-and-done” direction.

It was such a well-known disagreement that — once Reed Sheppard emerged as a star prospect — there was speculation as to whether any lingering hard feelings might possibly impact his recruitment. To the contrary, the elder Sheppard has had nothing but good things to say about Calipari, and the UK coach obviously made Reed a major priority for his 2023 class.

Sheppard was jokingly asked Saturday if that morning’s events had finally put the “longtime feud” to bed.

“There hasn’t been a longtime feud. There hasn’t been a longtime feud,” Jeff repeated a few times with a big laugh, before explaining further. “That ‘feud’ was just my comments of how I don’t like one and done. And I don’t like it,” he said, with another laugh. “And I won’t hide that. Just because I love the camaraderie that a team can get by staying together year to year and having experience and that kind of thing.”

Sheppard has talked about this before, and he’s aware that it’s more of an old-school view at this point. He was at UK for five seasons — redshirting one of those years — and experienced the end of the Rick Pitino era before leading the 1998 team in scoring and earning Final Four most outstanding player honors in a run to the national title that season, Tubby Smith’s first at UK.

He was part of the 1996 national title team that featured a blend of superstar seniors (like Tony Delk and Walter McCarty) and superstar underclassmen (like Antoine Walker and Ron Mercer). Back then, nobody left UK for the pros after just one season, and it was relatively rare for any Wildcat to enter the NBA Draft early, despite the abundance of stars and overwhelming success as a team. Nine of the 10 starters across those ’96 and ’98 title teams were seniors or juniors (and the other, Antoine Walker, was a sophomore).

So, once Calipari got to town and the Cats sent a few freshmen to the NBA seemingly every season, it left many fans, including Sheppard, yearning for the roster continuity of the past.

Sounds like there might still be room for Sheppard to change his tune, however.

Asked how he would feel about the subject if his son emerged as an NBA lottery pick after his freshman season of college, Sheppard played along with the biggest smile of the conversation.

“Then I will be a huge one-and-done fan!” he declared.

What’s next for Reed Sheppard?

Sheppard wanted to go ahead and get his college decision announced last weekend so he could enjoy his final two seasons of high school ball with his teammates at North Laurel without the stress of the recruitment hanging over him.

“And just play and have fun,” he said.

The fun begins next week.

North Laurel will host Red Bird at 7:30 p.m. Monday for the season opener on the same court where Sheppard announced his college decision last Saturday.

The North Laurel schedule features five straight home games before the Jaguars hit the road for two major neutral-site events next month. First will be the King of the Bluegrass tournament at Fairdale High in Louisville, with an opener against Eastern at 9 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 17. The following week, North Laurel will play in the Traditional Bank Holiday Classic at Lexington Catholic, with an opener against Louisville Trinity at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 26.

Sheppard will be back in town Feb. 5 for the Jock Sutherland Classic at Lafayette, where North Laurel plays Henry Clay (tip time, 6 p.m.). He’ll also be near Lexington for North Laurel’s game at Scott County at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 22.

Of course, the ultimate goal is a trip to Rupp Arena for the Sweet Sixteen in March. The Jaguars fell one victory short of the 13th Region title last season, losing to Knox Central in the championship game.

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