In addition to this recognition, he was also named SEC Freshman of the Year and received SecondTeam AllSEC honors.

Sheppard has been extraordinary all season for the Wildcats, helping lead the team to a 238 record in the regular season. He averaged 12.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game.

Not only is he incredibly wellrounded, but Sheppard is also efficient with the basketball.

The UK guard made 54% of his field goal attempts and was mightily impressive (52%) from behind the threepoint arc.

It’s just the third time in program history that a Kentucky player has won the award, with the previous two being John Wall (2010) and Anthony Davis (2012). Both of those players were No. 1 overall picks in the NBA draft and went on to appear in multiple NBA AllStar games.

Sheppard is the first player in program history to win the award while primarily coming off of the bench, starting in just five of his 32 games played this season.