Battle of the Bluegrass:NCAA officially Announced Indefinite Suspension Of Kentucky Wildcats & Louisville Coaches For…

There is a buzz of anticipation in Rupp Arena as he rises from the bench and runs towards the scorer’s table. There’s a roar of appreciation as he closes out the game and heads back to the sideline.Midway through his freshman season, Reed Sheppard is already a Kentucky basketball hero. And it didn’t take long for the legend to spread beyond the Bluegrass.Sheppard, the numbers show, is one of the best players in college basketball. Sheppard leads the nation in 3-point shooting (53.0%) and true shooting percentage, which measures a player’s overall efficiency as a shooter. However, most of its stats don’t jump off the page. At the start of the weekend he was fifth in terms of points in the British team. He is fourth in minutes. He makes the sixth-most shots among the Wildcats. He doesn’t start, much to the chagrin of many in the Commonwealth. His game is anything but flashy.But look at any metric, delve deeper into the analysis, and the results border on the unbelievable.“His numbers are just crazy,” said UK assistant coach John Welch, who spent 20 years on the fringes of the NBA and has a reputation as an innovative basketball thinker. “He has a great feeling for the game. And then he combines that with elite shooting. And I think he’s just someone that other players really enjoy playing with. He is an unselfish player. And I think he uses his basketball instincts very well – the feeling of being on both sides of the ball.These numbers don’t just confirm what our eyes tell us – that Sheppard is a uniquely gifted and indispensable player for this Kentucky team – they go even further.Sheppard’s stature is such that even local fans who yearn for a local star like him – and, as expected, have swooned over his every move thus far – may not fully understand what they see. The Hall of Fame coach didn’t seem too amused. British play-by-play announcer Tom Leach and the show’s host couldn’t help but laugh. “Richie’s not on the team anymore,” Calipari responded as Leach laughed harder.“I meant Reed Sheppard,” the confused caller clarified.