BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – October 17, 2023
Freshman Justin Edwards and senior Antonio Reeves were named to the Southeastern Conference men’s basketball preseason teams the league announced on Tuesday. Edwards was a first-team pick, while Reeves was a second-team choice.
Ranked as high as No. 3 in the 2023 recruiting class, Edwards was the MaxPreps Pennsylvania High School Player of the Year after helping lead Imhotep Charter to a state championship where he scored 19 points in the championship game. Edwards averaged 17.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game for nationally ranked Imhotep Charter. He was a McDonald’s All American and the Co-MVP of the Iverson Classic. The Philadelphia native averaged 14.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game en route to helping the Wildcats win gold at the GLOBL JAM this summer.
Reeves, the reigning Co-SEC Sixth Man of the Year, is UK’s leading returning scorer. The Chicago native averaged 14.4 points per game and made a team-high 80 3-pointers at a 39.8% clip a season ago. He reached double-figure scoring in 26 contests, including a career-high 37 points at Arkansas. Against the Razorbacks, he was 12 of 17 from the field and a perfect 11 of 11 from the charity stripe. He was tabbed the MVP of UK’s GLOBL JAM after pacing the Cats in scoring with 23.0 points per game and 4.5 made 3-pointers per outing.
Joining Edwards on the first team was Alabama’s Grant Nelson, Arkansas’ Trevon Brazile, Auburn’s Johni Broome, Mississippi State’s Tolu Smith, Tennessee’s Santiago Vescovi and Texas A&M’s Wade Taylor IV. Edwards is the lone underclassmen selected for the preseason team.
Reeves was picked alongside Alabama’s Mark Sears, Arkansas’ Davonte Davis, Florida’s Riley Kugel and Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler for the second team.
Tennessee was picked to win the regular-season title. Texas A&M was picked second, Arkansas third and the Cats were selected fourth to begin the year.
After the Wildcats’ annual Blue-White game Saturday at Northern Kentucky at 6 p.m. ET, the Cats will play exhibition contests against Georgetown College on Oct. 27 and Kentucky State on Nov. 2 at Rupp Arena with both games tipping off at 7 p.m. Kentucky’s season-opener is on Nov. 6 against New Mexico State with an 8 p.m. tip.
