Reed Sheppard is closing in on a Kentucky basketball record. Is he going to make it?

Reed Sheppard tallied five more steals Wednesday night.

That puts him five steps closer to a Kentucky basketball record.

Following UK’s heartbreaking, 75-74 loss to LSU, the Wildcats freshman is now up to 70 steals on the season with five more games to play before tournament time begins. He’s also on pace to surpass an all-time program mark that was set by a UK Hall of Famer just nine months after Kentucky’s reigning Mr. Basketball was born.

Sheppard rocketed from 12th to No. 5 overall on Kentucky’s single-season steals list with Wednesday’s performance, passing up such names as Kyle Macy, Tony Delk, John Wall and Ron Mercer on a single night. He’s now only 17 steals behind Rajon Rondo, who holds the Wildcats’ record with 87, set when he was a freshman 19 years ago.

Rondo accomplished his mark in 34 games during the 2004-05 season, an average of 2.56 steals per game, which also stands as a Kentucky record. Sheppard has achieved his current total in 26 games, an average of 2.69 steals per game.

If Sheppard simply stays level at his current season rate, he would go into the SEC Tournament with a total of 83 steals, just four behind Rondo with at least two more postseason games to play. Even the absolute-worst-case scenario of an opening loss in the league tourney and then a first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament would give him enough games — at his current rate — to squeak past Rondo’s record. If the Cats play just 33 games and Sheppard plays up to his average, he’d end up with 88 steals — one better than Rondo’s tally 19 years ago.

Obviously, the Wildcats have much higher hopes than that. And Sheppard’s defensive numbers have only gotten better recently. On Wednesday night, he became the first player in program history to record at least five steals in three consecutive games, according to UK statistician Corey Price. Steals have been an official stat since 1979.

Sheppard’s defense wasn’t expected to be his strong suit coming into the season, but it became the talk of the team early on. The UK freshman swiped two steals in his first college game. Afterward, John Calipari made a statement that raised eyebrows.

“Reed may have the best hands of anybody I’ve coached,” said Calipari, who has coached dozens of NBA players and had a record seven former Cats in the NBA All-Star Game this week.

Sheppard’s teammates backed up the talk that night.

“Just playing aggressive, disrupting, getting all type of steals,” fellow freshman D.J. Wagner said of Sheppard’s defense in preseason practices. “So it wasn’t really surprising to us. It might be surprising to y’all, but that’s what we see every day.”

Only seven Kentucky players have averaged more than 2.0 steals per game in a single season: Rondo (2.56 as a freshman and 2.03 as a sophomore), Cliff Hawkins (2.31), Rodrick Rhodes (2.30), Macy (2.23), John Pelphrey (2.18), Reggie Hanson (2.18) and Nerlens Noel (2.08).

Noel is the only player in Calipari’s previous 14 seasons as Kentucky coach to hit that mark. With Wednesday’s tally, Sheppard now has the most steals in a single season by any Calipari era player, passing up Wall, who had 66 steals in 37 games 14 years ago. The only four Wildcats still ahead of Sheppard on the all-time list are Rondo, Wayne Turner (79 steals in 1996-97), Rhodes (76 in 1993-94) and Hawkins (74 in 2003-04).

Sheppard won’t be the NCAA steals leader this season — Florida International’s Arturo Dean is the runaway No. 1 nationally with 3.56 steals per game — but the Kentucky guard does lead all freshmen in the country in that category. He’s No. 7 nationally among all players. He’s also received national recognition this season.

Before Wednesday’s game, Sheppard was No. 12 in the country — and No. 1 among freshmen — in Defensive Bayesian Performance Rating (DPBR), a metric that measures “the defensive value a player brings to his team when he is on the court.” Sheppard is No. 1 in the country in “Box DPBR” — a similar metric that measures a “player’s defensive value, based only on his individual stats.”

Both of those statistics are available on EvanMiya.com, and Evan Miyakawa — the founder of that basketball analytics website — spoke to the Herald-Leader last month about Sheppard’s phenomenal freshman season and his defensive impact on the Wildcats.

“Defensively, he’s been really great, despite — I know some people point out that he doesn’t necessarily have the athletic profile of being able to be the best on-ball defender — and yet he’s consistently getting steals and making the right choices defensively,” Miyakawa said. “So he knows his limits. And you see that in his individual stats. His individual numbers are really efficient. But then you also look at how well Kentucky is playing with him on the floor, and it’s like night and day difference. It’s pretty crazy.”

Sheppard’s overall BPR number, which combines offensive and defensive value, is now fourth nationally, behind only Purdue’s Zach Edey — the clear favorite to repeat as national player of the year — Houston’s Jamal Shead and UConn’s Donovan Clingan.

A few months ago, hearing Sheppard mentioned alongside such marquee college basketball names would have been unthinkable. In fact, the head coach of Kentucky’s first opponent of the season — New Mexico State’s Jason Hooten — skimmed right over him on opening night, reserving specific mention for more-heralded freshman guards Wagner and Rob Dillingham.

“I thought Dillingham and Wagner and 15 pressured the ball a little better than what I expected them to,” Hooten said. “I think when it gets down to it at the end of the year, it’s going to depend on how they are defensively. And if they get those big guys in there that can protect the rim, I think they’ve got a chance to be great.”

Of course, “15” is the number Sheppard wears. These days, everybody knows his name.

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