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Travis Perry has been impressed with his supporting cast at Kentucky and the attention he’s received since he arrived on campus has been the biggest surprise to the reigning Kentucky Mr. Basketball.
“All these guys are experienced veterans,” Perry said Thursday. “They’ve all proven themselves on multiple stages. They (could have) come in and all just kind of pushed over you and not really want to help you at all. But, they’re all such great guys and want to help you, sometimes even go out of their way to help you before helping themselves. All these guys are just just so willing to help and that’s something that’s been really big for us.”
Perry finished his prep career as the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky High School history and capped it off by leading Lyon County to the school’s first-ever state championship. His reputation as a prolific scorer has been on display in practice this summer. As part of a team-building exercise, the Wildcats began a free-throw shooting competition and Perry made 100 straight free throws for three straight days.
“It’s good team building thing and also just to make sure we’re all getting our shots in,” Perry said.
He also made 59 consecutive 3-pointers during an earlier practice session. It wasn’t the first time Perry has made a string of consecutive 3-pointers behind the scenes.
‘In high school, coach Tom Ricketts would stay and rebound for me every day,” he said. “We would go and we had a rule like, no talking. Basically, there’s just shooting and not a lot of misses. And that was the goal. I think I got like mid-80s one time with him. We were pretty locked in (during) those times and that’s that’s the goal.”
He admitted missing is “awful” but added that it involves pressure even when shooting an open 3-pointer.
“When you start getting above 30, you kind of start thinking about it a little bit, start getting a little bit of pressure in your head,” he said. “ But it’s just fun to kind of compete against yourself every day. You have guys in there that are working with you.
“We have great managers that rebound for us whenever we want it. And, they’re locked in as well. So it’s a lot of fun to shoot with them.”
His teammates have taken note of his shooting ability, including veteran guard Kerr Krissa.
“Travis is phenomenal.” he said. “I’ve had some pretty good shooters around me, but he’s definitely up there. He’s very smart. And he works hard. He really does…He’s in the gym and the results are showing.”
The freshman guard said coach Mark Pope’s system “isn’t complicated” and admitted learning it has been “pretty simple” thanks to his teammates.
“It might be more complicated for a guy like me coming in that’s never played college basketball before,” he said. “But you see (the veterans) and they know exactly what he’s talking about — maybe just a little bit of a different of language. But it just makes it so easy to learn whenever you have such great guys in front of you.”
Overall, Perry said his first summer as a Wildcat has been everything that he expected and more, especially competing against former members of the team who are part of the La Familia squad competing in the $1 million Basketball Tournament event.
“It’s been incredible,” he said. “Those are the guys that you grew up watching and dreaming of being those guys. And then now you’re the guy that’s here playing and they come back and you get to compete against all of them, practice against them, just hang out with them. It’s pretty incredible. It’s hard to describe really.”
7 Responses
It goes without saying that Perry is one of the best, if not the best, shooter on this team. Will the minutes he gets reflect that? Nobody wants to sit, but if this team wants to be special everyone is going to have to be ok with sitting more than they would like.
Best pure shooter I’ve seen since Josh Carrier. Josh could wear the nets out
during practice, but, for some reason, wasn’t able to do it during game
conditions. Also, wasn’t a very good defensive player.
Might put Reed in that best pure shooter category.
Think Perry is going to stand out this year. He plays hard and is a winner.
Carrier didn’t have game time confidence. Tubby was coach then. He saw it happen in practice; he should have encouraged him more in games. Being a poor defensive player was more likely the reason he saw limited PT.
In my opinion He will shine like Reed did last year as a freshman.
I agree!
Josh Carrier is a excellent example Larry. Tubby was a great defensive coach but lacked offense. Carrier didn’t fit his gameplan because he was the weakest link on defense. He was very slow. I think Perry will do much better than Carrier in his career. Perry is a great teammate like Reed. Reed could have probably averaged about 3-4 more ppg if he shot the ball more. He wanted everyone to get going and then he would get going. I think Perry will do the same. Whatever the team needs to win. Perry has the offensive arsenal to thrive in Popes offense but who is he going to guard on defense? You usually want your best on ball defender guarding the point and disrupting the offense. Could he keep up with the speed of a power 5 point guard? If you put him on the shooting guard or combo guard would he be physical enough to not get beat Everytime? That are the questions I ask myself when I break Perrys game down. Offense Yes Defense Idk? He seems like he’s a pesky defender. I think he’s 6’1"? That’s very small for a 2 guard. I think Butler guards the ball. I think he would do great in a half court trap defense. A 2-3 zone he would do great in. A 1-3-1 defense he would be ok. I just don’t know about a full court man to man. Maybe his 3 point shooting will offset his defense. Perry is hard to figure out because it’s hard to see where he stands in the pecking order. I do know this shooting in practice when your wide open is way different then shooting the ball with a 12" hand in your face. I know he can catch and shoot but will he be able to create his own shot. That’s what Reed struggled with at times last season was creating his own shot.
Chandler will be the best freshman on this year’s team and will contribute the most. If you don’t believe me watch his youtube clip- The coldest white boy in 2022 or something like that. Chandler was playing against better competition all D1 type recruits in the mixtape. He’s doing windmills, up and unders, and knocking down deep 3s. Hes Uber athletic. Yes he was on a 2 year mission. That’s really an advantage. His body had more time to develop. Now he’s getting college conditioning. It’s really going to be scary how good Chandler is going to be. He came out of on of the best high school classes in 10 years. He was rated between 22-39 depending on which one you look at. He would have came right in and started for BYU. He’s also grown 2 inches and gained 18 pounds. He’s has a college ready body now. I think he will be your 9th man on this team. He could even sneak into the top 7. He’s a pesky on defense and he’s the perfect height for a shooting guard. 6’6". I haven’t seen a kid fly like him since Malik Monk.