Kentucky men’s basketball senior Antonio Reeves and freshman Justin Edwards were named to the Southeastern Conference men’s basketball preseason teams as voted on by the 14 head coaches the league announced on Thursday. Reeves was a first-team pick, while Edwards was selected to the second team.
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.
UK’s senior sharpshooter was tabbed a second-team All-SEC pick by the league’s media, and is also on the preseason watch list for the Jerry West Award honoring the nation’s best shooting guard.
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.
Edwards was a first-team All-SEC selection by the media. He will begin the season on the preseason watch list for the Julius Erving Award which recognizes the nation’s best small forward.
Joining Reeves on the first team as voted by the coaches is Arkansas’ Trevon Brazile, Auburn’s Johni Broome, Florida’s Riley Kugel, Mississippi State’s Tolu Smith, Tennessee’s Santiago Vescovi and Zakai Zeigler, and Texas A&M’s Wade Taylor IV.
Edwards is joined on the second team by Alabama’s Grant Nelson and Mark Sears, Arkansas’ Davonte Davis, Ole Miss’ Matthew Murrell, Tennessee’s Josiah-Jordan James, Texas A&M’s Tyrece Radford and Vanderbilt’s Tyrin Lawrence.
