Travis Perry Plans to ‘Soak It All Up’ on Weekend Visit to UK

travis-perry-copy

Travis Perry had 36 points with John Calipari watching him play against the defending Indiana state champion last weekend. (Les Nicholson Photo)

It’s not like Travis Perry was an unknown high school basketball player, but both his recruiting and media profile have certainly skyrocketed in the past weeks — and it is about time. The Lyon County junior has already scored 3,189 points since joining the varsity team as a seventh-grader and is on pace to break the state’s all-time scoring record of 4,337 points set by “King” Kelly Coleman of Wayland from 1953-56.

In the past few weeks, he has added scholarship offers from Purdue, Bradley, Nebraska, Iowa, Cincinnati, Missouri, and Wake Forest to ones he already had from Western Kentucky, New Orleans, Mississippi, and Creighton. The 6-2, four-star guard has also been receiving interest from Michigan, Wisconsin, and others.

One of those others now showing interest is Kentucky after coach John Calipari got to see him play last weekend at the Titans-Rockets Summer Shootout in Shelbyville, an event Perry also missed because of an ankle injury suffered two weeks earlier. He didn’t decide he would play until the day before the event started.

“The Thursday before we went to Collins (in Shelbyville) I taped it (the ankle0 up and ran up and down in open gym. My father (Lyon County coach Ryan Perry) said I looked terrible and slow. I was leaning to not playing (in Shelbyville). I was just going to watch my team play,” Perry said Wednesday.

“On the way up there, I decided to get it taped up and try to play. It ended up working out pretty good.”

Pretty good? Lyon County went 3-1. Perry had 42 points, including 10 3-pointers, in one game and 36 points in a 63-62 loss to Indianapolis Cathedral, the defending Indiana state champion.

Calipari came to Shelbyville to watch Cathedral power forward Xavier Booker, the No. 2 overall player in the 2023 class, but obviously liked what he saw from Perry —the No. 66 player nationally in the 2024 class in the Rivals.com rankings.

Perry grew up a Kentucky fan and admitted playing in the state tournament at Rupp Arena in March was a lifetime dream come true. However, he’s not overreacting to his unofficial visit to UK this weekend.

“I definitely appreciate the opportunity very much and appreciate coach Cal reaching out to me,” Perry said. “I am just looking for a place that has faith in me and where I can make a difference in the program and feel like my talent can impact the team. But the main thing obviously is the relationship with the coach.”

Perry knows how to say all the right things just like he knows how to do all the right things — hit 3-pointers, drive, pass, run the floor, rebound, and more — on the court.

Still, he knows a visit to UK is not just another weekend trip.

“It’s definitely going to be a neat experience,” he said. “I plan to soak it all up and have a great time.”

3 Responses

  1. Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Creighton have the best style of play for this kid. If he were to come to KY, he would certainly help the team, but don’t think he is type of player that Calipari covets.

  2. Rather have this “long rifle” on our team than drilling them against us – can’t tell me UK hasn’t needed pure shooters in the last decade !

  3. Dontaie Allen 2.0? I would love for Calipari to recruit shooters but somehow once they get to UK they seem to forget how to shoot. Maybe it’s that constant “Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” ringing in their ears.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

All articles loaded
No more articles to load
Loading...