By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Antonio Reeves plans on keeping an even-keeled approach Friday night when his former team visits Kentucky.
Reeves played for the Redbirds for three seasons and scored 1,195 points before transferring to UK. Coming off a 30-point performance in a 95-76 win over Louisville on Dec. 21, Reeves plans on treating the reunion just like any other game and wants to stay focused.
“I’m really happy about it, really excited about it — of course, it’s my old team but I’ll try not to go all out and go wild out there,” he said Thursday. “I just have to stay poised and stay in pace.”
After two seasons at Illinois State, Reeves opted for the NBA Draft and then to return for a third season, a decision that took his game to another level.
“After my sophomore year, I declared for the draft to test the waters and I ended up going out to Miami to work out with pro trainers and things like that and it really just made my game skyrocket to another level,” Reeves said. “My junior year I went ballistic. I definitely had a great season that year and that’s why I’m here now.”
Reeves, a native of Chicago, keeps in touch with his former teammates, including Kendall Lewis, Nik Stadelman, Harouna Sissoko and Ryan Schmitt.
“I (still) talk to a couple of the old teammates — like just like three or four of them not playing on a team right now, but one or two of them (on the team) I still communicate with.”
Since leaving Normal, Ill., Reeves has made a jump in his overall game. In his second season with the Wildcats, Reeves has been Kentucky’s leading scorer through the first 11 games and is averaging 18.3 points per game. He’s scored double figures in all but one game.
“My growth has really been one of the key points of me being here right now, just staying focused and staying humble as a person, just being able to stay in the gym every day and working on my game, which has definitely improved over time.”
The Wildcats (9-2) haven’t played a home contest since dropping an 80-73 decision to UNC-Wilmington on Dec. 2. Since then Kentucky has won three straight games and is ranked No. 8 in this week’s AP Top 25.
During the Christmas break, Reeves said the Wildcats spent time working on improving on the defensive end of the court, an area of concern at times this season.
“I would say we are pretty good, but we can be great,” he said. “(We’ve been working on) the little things (and) we had to tighten up on that.”
Illinois State (8-4) carries a two-game winning streak into the game and defeated Southeast Missouri State 85-63 in its previous outing on Dec. 21.
Gametracker: Illinois State at Kentucky. TV/Radio: SEC Network, UK Radio Network.