LEXINGTON, Ky. – Star Kentucky men’s basketball guard Antonio Reeves has been chosen to the 2023-24 NABC Division I District 20 First-Team, the National Association of Basketball Coaches announced on Tuesday.
The All-District honors are voted on by NABC-member coaches across NCAA Division I. Reeves is joined on the District 20 First-Team by Johni Broome (Auburn), Dalton Knecht (Tennessee), Mark Sears (Alabama) and Wade Taylor IV (Texas A&M).
Antonio Reeves
Reeves has firmly cemented himself as one of the nation’s best players. In addition to earning NABC All-District honors, he is an All-Southeastern Conference First Team selection. Reeves is among the final five candidates for the Jerry West Award, honoring the nation’s best shooting guard as well as a Wooden Award national ballot, the Naismith Trophy midseason list and an Oscar Robertson Trophy Watch List member.
He is UK’s leading scorer at 20.0 points per game, tied with Jamal Murray for the highest scoring average per game by any player in the Calipari era. Reeves is tallying marks of 50.8% from the field, 44.1% from 3-point range and 86.9% from the free-throw line — all career bests. He is the only Power 5 player averaging at least 1.5 made 3-pointers and tallying at least .490% from the field, .435 from 3-point range and .865 from the charity stripe.
He tallied 30 points in a win at Louisville and followed that performance with 27 against Illinois State. He was just the fourth UK player to ever score 30 or more in the series vs. Louisville. With the 30-point effort at Louisville, Reeves joined Oscar Tshiebwe (4), Malik Monk (4) and Jamal Murray (3) as the only players in the UK-Calipari era to have multiple games with 30 or more points.
Reeves has topped double-figure scoring in all but one game this season and eclipsed the 20-point plateau in 19 games. He is just the second UK player under Calipari to have 20-plus career 20-or-more scoring efforts in his career, joining 2022 National Player of the Year, Tshiebwe, in that category. Twelve of his 28 career 20-plus point scoring efforts have come on the road.
The Chicago native scored 20 or more in seven straight games from Feb. 17 to March 9, the longest streak of 20-point efforts for a UK player since Murray had 12-straight in 2016.
In 10 true road games this season, Reeves averaged 22.9 points per game, 48.5% from the field, 50.8% from 3-point range with 3.3 made 3s per game and 82.9% from the charity stripe.
Against Georgia, he eclipsed 2,000 career points combining his time at Illinois State and at Kentucky. As a Wildcat, he became the 62nd player in program history to amass 1,000 career points with 25 at LSU. He is one of three active players and 10 all-time to tally 1,000 career points at two different programs.
In two seasons with UK, Reeves has scored 1,128 points. The most in a two-year span as a Wildcat is 1,213 by Bill Spivey.
In his career with UK he has 56 double-digit scoring games, 43 games with multiple made 3s, 29 20-point games and eight games with five or more made 3s.
Antonio Reeves Honors:
- NABC D1 District 20 First-Team
- Sporting News Third-Team All-America
- Jerry West Award Top 5
- All-SEC First Team (coaches)
- All-SEC First Team (AP)
- John R. Wooden Award finalist
- Naismith Player of the Year midseason watch list
- Oscar Robertson Trophy late season watch list
- College Hoops Today All-America Third Team
- ESPN All-America Third Team
- Dick Vitale National Player of the Week (Jan. 22 and March 11)
- Bluegrass Sports Commission MVP of Kentucky-Louisville Game (Dec. 21)