Koby Brea is Putting Together a ‘pretty fun product’

Koby Brea went 3-for-3 from 3-point range against Lipscomb Tuesday night and has now made 15 of 19 3’s this season — a 78.9 percent accuracy rate.

So what did Kentucky coach Mark Pope think of his guard’s play against Lipscomb?

“I thought he was great on the glass tonight.  It was just seven rebounds, but it was challenged rebounds, physical rebounds, I was really proud of him for that.  He ended up with some switched mismatches that he handled really well,” Pope said.

“I still think he’s got a huge amount of game in his tank on the defensive end in isolation and handling guys one-on-one.  Actually, Koby is interesting because sometimes my eyes tricked me and at the end of the game he’s actually got a better defensive package than I thought I saw.  With him, I always have to go back to the numbers and just check with my eyes right now as unlearning him as a defensive player.”

Pope believes Brea is capable of being an even better playmaker. The Kentucky coach went into specifics about what Brea can still do better.

“He’s still learning to get off two feet.  He had one opportunity where he shot faked, and drove baseline right in front of our bench where he could see the bottom kind of was there and he bailed out of it,” Pope said. “I actually had the confidence in him, I would love him to carve out space, get his shoulder into the hips that he just turned, carve out some space and get all the way to two feet, because he’s really good in there.  

“I would like him to grow in that sense about being able to probe more downhill, more confidently, more off-the-wall creating space.  So, I would like him to continue to be a really dangerous, huge energy cutter.  He probably doesn’t manufacture as much as he can yet.  He’s such a lethal shooter and teams are going to overplay, and overplay, and overplay more and he can really kill teams as a cutter and that’s a place in this game where he’s growing.  So, there is a lot of growth for him.”

Pope finally got around to Brea’s offensive efficiency. He was almost a 50 percent shooter from 3 at Dayton last year and there’s no reason to think he cannot maintain this torrid pace at UK.

“He’s putting together a pretty fun product, right?  It’s pretty fun,” Pope said. “It’s hard. We talked about it. Lipscomb came in having played 34 possessions of zone at a 0.511 points for possession. That’s ridiculous, guys, that’s so good.  And so they kind of saved it and went to it in the second half and it was like, you’ve got Koby Brea running around shooting 3s, it’s like we can’t do that.  

“I think we were almost two points per possession, over two points per possession against the zone.  He is just a fun player to coach and a beautiful human being.”

He’s also a terrific teammate who accepts limited shots without forcing bad shots and is all-in about winning.

“I get confidence from the team and coaching staff. They do a good job of pouring confidence into me,” Brea said. “ It means a lot — how much they trust me — and everything becomes easier.

“On the floor, being able to move, everything flows and comes to you. I take my time and stay patient, and I know it is going to be good.”

 Brea doesn’t dwell on made or missed shots.

“I move on pretty quickly,” he said.

But he did admit he is surprised if he misses a 3.

“It’s the game, it is probably going to happen, but it’s just about moving onto the next one,” the UK guard said. “I try to do that as much as I can anytime I miss one. Just focus on the next one.”