7: Kentucky
New coach Tubby Smith will rely on an old redshirt to make
Big Blue
go
Although senior guard Jeff Sheppard was a redshirt last season and had to
sit and watch as the Wildcats went to the
national-championship game without him, his enthusiasm for
the game never waned. "It didn't make any difference
if it was two or three in the morning,"
says teammate Cameron Mills, "he would go to the gym
and shoot. That carried over through the summer. He's got
that itch. He wants to
play."
Of all the assets that former coach Rick Pitino left his
successor, Tubby Smith—including two starters from the
team that lost in overtime to Arizona in the
NCAA tournament final—Sheppard may turn out to be the best.
Pitino felt that Sheppard has the
potential to play in the NBA, which was one reason why he
continued to redshirt him even after starting guard Derek
Anderson was lost for the season on Jan. 18 with a torn ACL
in his right
knee.
So now Sheppard is still around to provide leadership and
firepower to a team that has lost Anderson and forward Ron
Mercer, both first-round picks in the NBA draft. Smith, who
was a Pitino assistant at Kentucky before moving on to
develop winning
programs at Tulsa and Georgia, believes the Wildcats can
compensate with balance. "We have a lot of people who
can score in a lot of different ways," he says.
Indeed, junior point guard Wayne Turner has an improved
outside shot to go with his ability to penetrate;
6'10" junior Nazr Mohammed and
6'10" sophomore Jamaal Magloire provide a strong
presence in the pivot;
6'9" junior Scott Padgett,
6'5" senior Allen Edwards and
6'6" junior newcomer Heshimu Evans (a transfer from
Manhattan College) are dangerous anywhere on the floor; and
Mills, who made 53.2% of his three-pointers last year, is
instant offense off the
bench.
Yet if there's one player who can make the difference
between this being an ordinary team (by Kentucky's lofty
standards) or another national-title contender, it's
Sheppard. As a sophomore in 1994-95 he started 27 games and
averaged 8.3 points for a
28-5 team that was upset by North Carolina in the Southeast
Regional finals. The next season Sheppard gracefully
accepted a bench role and a significant cut in minutes but
still was an
important contributor on the deep squad that won the NCAA
championship.
Then he stepped aside last year on Pitino's
advice. "I got kind of antsy at tournament time, but
I'm glad I sat out a year," Sheppard says. "I got
in good shape, and I worked on my ball handling and
shooting. I hope every part of my game got a little
better. Now I've been here the longest, so I need to be a
leader."
|
Last Year | 35-5 |
|
Returning Starters | 2 |
| Points Per Game '96-97 | 83.1 |
| PPG By All Returning Players | 54.5 | Padgett, who missed a season because of academic
shortcomings, understands what Sheppard went through last
season. "The year off really helped Jeff because he
learned basketball from a coach's perspective," he
says. "Now he knows the game, where
everybody should be on the floor, instead of relying on just his
athletic ability. He'll be tough to play against. In
practice he has pretty much scored at
will."
That's how it is when you have the
itch. —William F. Reed
Next: Fresno State
|
