$765,000 NIL-valued Robert Dillingham backs Reed Sheppard as Kentucky star leads John Calipari's crew to victory: "Ballgame"

Kentucky's Reed Sheppard scored 32 points, grabbed five rebounds, and dished seven assists in a thrilling 91-89 win against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Sheppard's game-winning layup sealed the victory.

The $765,000 NIL-valued Robert Dillingham (as per On3) backed his teammate's performance on his Instagram stories, captioning a post of the game-winning moment:

"Ballgame."

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John Calipari shows frustration and pride at Reed Sheppard

During his postgame news conference, Wildcats coach John Calipari showed his frustration at Reed Sheppard who lost possession of the ball with 24 seconds remaining allowing Mississippi State to score two free throws.

“Well, I was about to choke him when he threw the ball deep and they get to the foul line,” Calipari said.

“And I’m looking like, ‘Why would you do that? You’ve got two foul shooters, either one will make free throws and you throw one deep.’ He was trying to do the high school, I’m going to dribble it and dribble it and dribble it and all of a sudden he’s like, ‘Oh no.'”

Calipari also praised his team, specifically DJ Wagner and Reed Sheppard, for not calling a time-out after the Bulldogs drew level.

“He plays to win,” Calipari said. “He’s not playing not to lose. There will be some ‘Why didn’t you call a timeout?’ Because of what just happened. They can’t set up their defense. They had no timeouts. And you look at DJ and say ‘Make something happen.’ And the ball ends up in Reed’s hand and he goes and makes it and we win the game.

“Let me coach the team, you enjoy these games. It’s too early. He makes the 3, but we got eight seconds. So now we come down and end up winning the game.”

The Mr. Nice Guy of college basketball, Reed Sheppard, even showed his edge when speaking about the warning by Mississippi State with 4:51 to go that warned its fans not to storm the court when the Bulldogs were leading 71-67.

"It was really cool. Because last time there was a big crowd and they had a sellout game, it went the other way and they did they rush the floor. And that was a feeling that no one on the team wants to feel again," Sheppard said. "Standing on the court, watching the crowd rush the floor.

"So you know, being able to take away their fans from doing that and watch them leave when the buzzer goes off all mad and disappointed, and the Kentucky fans staying and cheering us on is really cool."

Reed Sheppard has found form at just the right time for the Kentucky Wildcats, with the NCAA Tournament just a few weeks away.