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Sheppard has come off a voluntary redshirt year to become Kentucky's leading scorer.
(David E. Klutho)
| Jeff Sheppard,
Kentucky
Class:
Senior
Position: Guard
Height:
6'3"
Weight:
190
DOB:
Sept. 29,
1974
Hometown:
Peachtree City,
Ga.
High School:
McIntosh
Vital
Stats: 13.2 points per game, 3.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists
by Albert
Lin
As people in Boston are quickly learning, Rick Pitino
doesn't hesitate to change his mind. When he makes
supposedly ironclad pronouncements and then reverses
himself a short time later, his explanation is,
That's how I felt at the
time.
Kentucky fans learned this long ago. Jeff Sheppard is a
textbook case. In November 1996, four days after saying he
was "98 percent, maybe 99 percent" sure he would
not do it, Pitino elected to redshirt Sheppard for what
would have been his senior year.
A starter—albeit out of position at point guard—as a
sophomore, Sheppard's playing time had been cut nearly in
half during Kentucky's run to the 1996 title. The mutual
decision was reached because of the Wildcats' depth and
Sheppard's desire to improve
his skills to NBA
level.
Even when starting off-guard Derek Anderson and backup
Allen Edwards were injured during Kentucky's run to a
second straight NCAA title game, Sheppard remained
steadfast. "It was never an issue," he says about
the possibility of playing. "It never came
up the whole
season."
As a result, Sheppard finds himself leading the Wildcats in
scoring as they try for another Final Four. "Of all
the things I've done at Kentucky, this is the best move
I've made," Pitino said late last season. "I'm
positive he'll be a first-round draft
pick. I'm positive he'll be an All-American next
year."
While Sheppard hasn't quite lived up to those
expectations—questions linger about his shooting touch,
and SEC coaches bypassed him in favor of teammates Nazr
Mohammed and Scott Padgett on their all-conference teams—there
isn't much to find at fault with
this Georgia peach, who is full of pleasant surprises. He is a
phenomenal leaper, breaking one of basketball's great
stereotypes (7-foot high jumper in high school); he's
good-looking (during his freshman year, female admirers
would squeal in delight when
he came off the bench); he's a devoted Christian and
soon-to-be family man (he and his fiancée, former
Kentucky women's basketball player Stacey Reed, are both
members of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes); and he's
a romantic (he carefully planned his
proposal to Reed at her family's farm in London, Ky., where
they will be married May
30).
And, most important to Wildcats fans, he's a good player
and teammate. Even Pitino wouldn't change his mind about that.
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March 18: Tim Young, Stanford
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