Arguably the best sporting event of the year is currently in its early stages as March Madness got started on Tuesday night with the First Four, and then the first round got started on Thursday. The First Four gave us an early taste of the tournament and there were some great matchups, but Thursday was March Madness at its finest. The first day is always one of the best as there are 16 games going from noon all the way until around midnight ET. We saw a lot of great action on days one and two, and now, college basketball fans are ready to do it all again this weekend. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Well, maybe not for Reed Sheppard and Kentucky basketball.
There is so much to love about March Madness, and the first week of the tournament is one of the best stretches in all of sports. Basketball begins at noon and there are countless good games all day and into the night. College basketball fans are currently setting up multiple TVs to be able to take in as much March Madness action at once as humanly possible. It doesn't get much better than this weekend when it comes to sport, and a big reason why are the upsets and the individual performances from the stars that we didn't see coming. We saw a lot of that in the Kentucky Oakland game.
Another great part of March Madness are the historic performances put on by individual players. Every so often we will see a player completely take over a game and put their team on their back, and they sometimes carry their squad all the way to a national title. It's always fun to watch. When it gets to the later stages of the tournament, everyone knows that player is getting the ball, and still, no one can stop him. We saw some of that yesterday, but going into the game, we were expecting to see guys like Reed Sheppard or Rob Dillingham be the stars of the game. That was not the case.
The upsets are always special as well. It seems like every season there is at least one underdog team that captures America's heart and makes a surprise deep run in March Madness. For example, #16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson took down #1 seed Purdue last year and ended up putting up a good fight in the second round too. They lost to Florida Atlantic, however. Then, #9 said Florida Atlantic turned into the cinderella team as they marched all the way to the Final Four. Upsets are one of the best parts of college basketball, and something about March Madness brings them out. We now have a cinderella team to root for after some great upsets took place during day one of the tournament, and the biggest was the Grizzlies big win over Kentucky basketball. Nothing went right for the Wildcats, and one player that especially struggled was Reed Sheppard.
Reed Sheppard has been one of the best players in college basketball all season long, but he didn't deliver in the bright lights of March Madness. Sheppard finished the game against Oakland with just three points on 1-5 shooting. That isn't going to cut in the NCAA Tournament with the season on the line.
Sheppard has had a great year and he is expected to be one of the first players taken in the NBA Draft. Some people even have him projected to be the first overall pick in the draft.
According to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, Reed Sheppard of Kentucky is the #1 pick in this year’s NBA Draft. He has been absolutely awful vs. Oakland.
BTW, O’Connor had Killian Hayes as the #1 player in the 2020 NBA Draft.
— Bruce Tennen (@BruceTennen) March 22, 2024
Sheppard didn't come to play against Oakland. Will that have a negative impact on his NBA Draft stock?
Reed Sheppard draft stock after loss to Oakland
Sheppard is a true freshman this season on the Kentucky basketball team, and he has really had a terrific season outside of the poor performance against Oakland. He finished the year averaging 12.5 PPG, 4.1 RPG and 4.5 APG. He has adjusted to the college level well and he is liked by a ton of NBA scouts. He wouldn't be viewed so highly if he didn't have a very impressive season, and people have been raving about him all year long. One NBA executive compared to Austin Reaves of the Los Angeles Lakers.
“He’s very crafty in everything he does,” The exec said, according to a tweet from NBACentral. “He’s a knockdown shooter. He moves the ball, and it doesn’t stick with him. He’s a quick thinker on the court. He makes winning plays. I’d be a little worried that even though he gets a lot of steals, he gambles a little bit too much at times. He’s not afraid of the spotlight playing at Kentucky, where he has a lot of pressure on him as a homegrown kid from the state. He and a guy like Austin Reaves have that inner confidence and believe in their abilities, which translates to the floor.”
However, one thing that is important to NBA scouts is performing on the biggest stage. Because Sheppard is only a freshman, he has only this one season on his tournament resume, and it didn't go well. The Wildcats were also upset in their only other postseason game as they lost in their first matchup of the SEC Tournament. Sheppard played much better in that game, however, as he finished with 14 points on 5-8 shooting.
Sheppard helped lead Kentucky to a successful regular season that saw them ranked in the top-10 at the end of the season and they finished in second place in the SEC. They seemed poised for success in March Madness, but Oakland had other plans.
At the end of the day, it's extremely disappointing for Kentucky that they lost that game, but in terms of NBA Draft stock for Reed Sheppard, it shouldn't change much. It was one game, and players have off nights. It's unfortunate for him that happened in the NCAA Tournament, but it's not like NBA teams are going to look at that one game and punish him for it when he was putting great stuff on tape all season long. Tough loss for the Wildcats, but Sheppard's stock will be just fine.
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