Kentucky Mr. Basketball Travis Perry with UK coach Mark Pope. (X Photo)
If Ryan Perry could pretend he was only Travis Perry’s coach at Lyon County and not also his father, how would he evaluate the way his son, Kentucky’s all-time leading scorer and the current Mr. Basketball, would fit into new Kentucky coach Mark Pope’s offense compared to how he would have fit in former coach John Calipari’s offense?
“If that were the situation, it’d be a no-brainer to me that this fits really good. This feels good. This feels right,” Ryan Perry said.
Great Crossing lost to eventual state champion Lyon County and Travis Perry in the state semifinals. Great Crossing coach Steve Page was Ryan Perry’s assistant on the Kentucky team that played against the Ohio all-stars in April and is a huge Travis Perry fan.
“I think Travis is a great player. We have played against him several times. He shoots the ball so well. He is so smart,” Page said. “It’s fun just being around him. We scrimmaged them two years ago at Western Kentucky and he did not play but I talked to him and he was, ‘Yes sir. No. sir.’ He’s just an incredible kid.
“When you have kids like that you know they are going to work as hard as they can to do good things.”
Page also thinks the Kentucky coaching change could benefit the Lyon County star because of the offensive and defensive systems Pope uses.
“The style of offense they are going to play is probably going to open up more shots for him.
Coach Pope talking about changing defenses will probably help Travis as well. Instead of having to always play man to man and play one way, that change will help him,” Page said.
“He’s a Kentucky kid playing at Kentucky. He grew up loving Kentucky, so he is one of those kids we (Kentuckians) are all going to cheer for.”
Page said Travis Perry just has a special vibe that shows on and off the court.
“He is very quiet. To score as many points as he did, he does not want you to talk about him. In today’s world that doesn’t happen. Kids want to pump their chest and talk about themselves and what they have done and he has every right to do that with the amount of points he has scored but he is not like that at all,” Page said.
“He is a good teammate. He wants to do well. He probably thinks he has something to prove because he is Mr. Basketball. There’s a lot of pressure on him as a Kentucky recruit and Mr. Basketball. I can’t imagine the amount of pressure on him but he handles it so well that you can never tell that anything bothers him.”
Ryan Perry admits that both he and his wife worried a bit when Calipari left about who UK might hire.
“We didn’t know if they might bring in a coach who would not value what Travis would bring to the table,” Ryan Perry said. “You were never going to get much emotion out of Travis. He’s very level headed with everything and he handled the coaching change the same way.
“But he was really excited the day coach Pope got the job. Everything coach Pope has done so far has been excellent from our camp. We are all excited and really think this is going to turn out to be a great move for Travis.”
The state’s all-time leading scorer is scheduled to wear jersey No. 1 for Kentucky in the annual all-star series against Indiana June 7 in Lexington and June 8 in Indianapolis. Reed Sheppard, Kentucky’s 2023 Mr. Basketball, did not play in the game because it conflicted with summer practices Calipari had scheduled at UK.
13 Responses
Travis and Trent are a good fit for UK and Coach Pope. I know Mark is bringing in a lot of experienced guards, but with the movement that comes with Pope’s offense and the emphasis that he puts on defense, kids will need breathers to keep up that pace. We need another big, and most likely will pick up another guard/wing player. With that being said, Travis and Trent shoot the lights out. As they get rotated in, the level of play won’t drop off at all. We have a good team and a good coach. I can’t wait for the start of the season to get here..
Agree 💯 on all accounts! GO CATS!!!
Travis Perry & Mark Pope each struck gold with the coach-player connection. Both love UK – Pope helped anchor the 1996 UK National Championship & Travis is KY Mr BB who broke the all-time KY HS scoring record of about 70 years.
We all know how poorly every UK player from a KY HS was treated for the past 15 years (not to mention dozens not even offered a scholarship or even given a look by the fraud) until Sheppard was so good in summer games he had to get PT & just got better game after game.
Travis Perry & Noah Trent will be instrumental in UK going to the S16 and beyond in 2024-25 and years to follow until #9 (& maybe more) is in the UK rafters
Great post! You nailed it!
The Fraud would have never offered Reed, if it had not been for his Dad.
Absolutely right
The fraud was so sure that his pets would score a lot (regardless how many shots it would take) and give him a reason to push Reed to the end of the bench. The fraud got fooled when Reed got national attention in Canada & was essentially forced to ply him.
I am anticipating Reed to start, but if not, plenty of minutes.
I anticipate for Reed, Chandler, Brae & Noah to all hit more than 42% of their 3’s, with a couple of them around 47% to 48% with rested legs, screens, ball movement, etc l.
The inside-outside game will give bigs & 2-point shooters a lot of good looks at the basket,
Travis is accidentally nicknamed “Reed” in my comment. Well, Travis will remind me of Reed this season when our Kentuckian gets it going!
Noah Waterman, 6’11", 220 stretch 4 from BYU has entered the portal. He would be the perfect pickup for Pope. He shot 37% from 3 and would be a good complement to Carr.
Reed Sheppard just posted a 42" vertical at the NBA draft combine…2+ inches higher than anyone else…anyone. The Fraud wasted this guy’s talent his year at Kentucky, but what else is new? We get to put a beatdown on the Hogs in Rupp this season!
I think Travis and Reed are 2 completely different players. Apples and Oranges. Reed is more athletic than Travis but I think Travis is a better scorer than Reed. Reed gets the nod on defensive intensity but as many times that he stole the ball he would get burnt on defense for over playing and trying to anticipate the pass. Travis kind of plays a little farther off his man which makes him not get beat in many one on ones like Reed did. Travis can create his shot better than Reed can which was evident against Oakland or any other team the put a chaser on Reed he usually didn’t score that many points. Reed is better in the open court on a fast break but Travis is much better at creating his own offense and is also deadly at knocking down 3s in the open court. I think Reed playing last summer in Canada really helped him get ready for year one. I don’t think we play this summer which could make the freshman a little behind from what the freshman were last year. But this years freshman class get to practice against seniors and who have incredible defense which will help them tremendously on the offensive end. I think Perry doesn’t clock as many minutes this year as people think he will. He’s not competing for playing time against other freshman like Calapari led teams. He’s competing against guys with tons of experience which is harder to crack the rotation. I’m not saying he won’t play at all. But if he plays more than 10 mpg his freshman year I will be very surprised. I think he uses this year to learn the ends and outs of playing power 5 basketball and next year he explodes. There won’t be any 5th year seniors playing next year and there is a ton of 5th year college guys playing this year. As long as Noah and Perry get better this year which they will their big games are going to come in their sophomore and junior campaigns. One of the two might surprise some people and play 10-15 mins a game but I doubt it with us finally having alot of talent and experience. Watch out for Carr and Kriisa and Brea. Also Chandler is going to be fun to watch at 6’6". He was doing Dominique Wilkins dunks at 6’4".
Reed shepherd like caliper I are both gone why talk about them we have whole new team to talk about
What really "fits right" is Coach Pope and UK. That makes it so much better for every player, every coach, and EVERY FAN
Amen Professor!
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