Travis Perry and Mark Pope
Mark Pope and his Kentucky staff have been working the transfer portal with great success the last two weeks and now have four commitments for next year’s team out of the transfer portal.
Pope has other transfers on campus this week and still has more scheduled to visit.
However, Paul Biancardi, recruiting director for ESPN and college basketball/NBA draft analyst, said not to forget about Collin Chandler and Travis Perry who will be true freshmen at UK next season.
“I love them both. They are different in age obviously (because Chandler went on a two-year mission trip after high school graduation in 2022),” Biancardi said. “He was one of the really good offensive players in his class.
“He has pop in his legs and can elevate. He’s unafraid. He makes deep 3’s. I like this toughness and scoring ability and ability to move off of screens. He is a guy who does not just stand there. He brings shot making ability and seems like a perfect Pope player.”
What about Perry, Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball and the state’s all-time leading scorer?
“I saw him at the City of Palms (in Florida in December) and in two games he scored 70 points and was the only real weapon for his team at that level of competition,” Biancardi said. “He shoots it really deep and makes shots. He plays with grit and is really a smart player. He just knows how to play the game and where to be.
“I think both of those guys really fit into Mark’s system really well. I am not sure how the roster will fill out but both of those guys are really good players and both were pretty highly ranked in their recruiting classes.”
5 Responses
2 genuine UK guards! They both fit the profile of the UK BB a lot of us remember when the Baron & Joe B had some great players who really were playing FOR Kentucky! What a breath of fresh air to have such players again.
I anticipate Travis Perry will surprise the BB nation a lot like Reed Sheppard did. In the State Tournament he made some plays on defense which were key to winning the Title. It was more than just his incredible shooting ability. Chandler also sounds like a winner. The 2 bigs now on board gives UK 4 potential starters & one of the transfer guards would make a 3 guard line-up with 2 bigs @ PF @ C. That sounds competitive to me!
With the commitment of Garrison we are looking very good on paper. If we can land Osobor and Brea or just one of the two we will be amazing. We have alot of great defensive guys and some underrated offense as well. We are a couple of players away from a final 4 team. I think Perry and Chandler thrive in Mark Pope’s offense. They can both knock down 3s at a rapid rate. I think one of the two start. It could be either guy. I see alot of people saying the boy hasn’t played in 2 years. He still played and kept himself loose. He will be even better as a freshman because he will have his junior year body. I think Pope is going to have these guys running the legs off of the other team. I would rather have players where you know what your getting and I also love the 3, 5th year seniors we have. They are going to play like every game is their last game because it might be their last game. That’s 3 guys that are probably 23 years old. Age makes a big difference, look at all the one and dones we’ve had come through here. If you notice most but not all really begin to dominate in their 3-5 years. We have 4 guys with that sort of experience and 5 if you count Chandler who would be a junior this coming year. Pope knows what he’s doing. He’s putting the perfect balance of defense and shooters and that’s how you win banners. I’m very happy that Pope is our coach he has me pumped about basketball again. The last 5 years its been a decline. I was just losing Interest in the compassion that our teams have been having. I also think we have around 65 points returning from division 1 basketball and 3 guys who have already scored 1,000 points or more. We finally get to watch kids that look like college kids and not kids at the McDonald’s playground. Nah jk but not really.
👍 I agree with all of it 👍
I just hope both of them can do all that at the college level
My goodness Gertie, lace em up and let’s play ball. Anything is going to be better than the repetitive Caliphony junk-ball we have painfully endured the past 9 years. Wow, exciting to know we won’t have to watch him cluuelessly stalk the sidelines screaming like a raped ape.