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Travis Perry is Kentucky’s all-time leading high school scorer, a former Mr. Basketball, and a player who grew up in Lyon County loving the Kentucky Wildcats.
He was recruited by John Calipari and signed with the Wildcats, and then stayed on board when Calipari left for Arkansas and Mark Pope took over as UK’s coach.
However, the love affair came to an end Tuesday night when Perry put his name into the transfer portal.
Perry was not expected to be a major contributor as a true freshman, but injuries forced him into the lineup. The 6-1 guard played in 31 games and averaged 2.7 points and 9.7 minutes per game, and even started four games at point guard when he averaged 8.0 points, 2.0 assists, 2.0 steals, and 27.3 minutes in those games. He had 11 points and four rebounds in 30 minutes against Alabama in the SEC Tournament.
He shot 36.6 percent from 3-point range during 18 SEC games.
Perry turned down offers from Ole Miss, Alabama, Cincinnati, Purdue, Western Kentucky, and others when he signed with UK.
Backup point guard Kerr Krissa, who missed the last 3 1/2 months of the season with a foot injury, transferred after the season ended. Incoming freshman point guard Acaden Lewis recently asked for his release from UK.
However, the Cats return guards Otega Oweh, Collin Chandler and Trent Noah and have added Jaland Lowe, Denzel Aberdeen and Kam Williams in the transfer portal. Kentucky will also add signee Jasper Johnson to the backcourt.
Perry did not play in UK’s final two NCAA Tournament games but certainly made it sound like after the season-ending loss to Tennessee that he would be back.
“Just the energy, the culture that he (Pope) was bringing here was something that you want to be a part of. He lived it firsthand, won a championship here, and he knew how much it means to Kentucky fans. This place changed him and made him who he is,” Perry told media members. “That’s ultimately what we hope to get out of this. We want to hang banners. We want to win championships. But we also want to come out of it better people and better off from it.”
Count me as one who hates to see Perry go and while he was criticized by some UK fans he was also beloved by many who were anxious to watch his development the next three years. But I also understand that Perry is a competitor who can see a real possibility of far less playing time next season if he stays at Kentucky.
Perry wants to play — and who can blame him for that? My guess is that his love for UK and Pope won’t change. He’s just looking for a chance to play.
23 Responses
I understand this is the way things are these days but this portal and n.i.l. stuff is hard to grasp. No patience anymore, the portal has made it so patience is lost and loyalty.. The name on the front of the jersey is losing its meaning. Not to us fans though.
With you Grant. Travis wants to play and knows chances of playing a lot at UK are not that great unless team has bunch of injuries again
He’ll go down in UK history as the only player that stayed when Jack Ass left.
He’ll have a good/great career in Bowling Green.
Go HillToppers!
I’d say he might be a good mid-major prospect. Such as ______________________ ?
Ole Miss… I think he should go to a smaller school like Western Kentucky or even a school like Northwestern or Creighton to me would be his best fit. have a great year and then get a good payday but if Beard offers him playing time and more cash he’s gone to the ole miss
No surprise here. Too slow. Defense is weak.
Travis is a good kid and I wish him the best in whatever he decides to do. NIL and the portal have turned college basketball into a business. We needed a proven backup point guard and I was hoping that Chandler would get a shot at that based upon his improvement at the end of last season. Aberdeen is a significant upgrade over Chandler and Perry. If the signing of Aberdeen had happened a week sooner, Chandler would have been portal bound too. When a team is 2 deep at every position, it’s hard to find minutes for third tier players who are basically the scout team for practice and injury insurance.
I am still not convinced that Quaintance will be ready to play in the pre-conference season, so Garrison and Moreno will have to hold the 5 spot down. Neither are starter ready, but that could change be SEC play. That would allow Quaintance time to find his groove and be a difference maker by tourney time.
With an open scholarship now, Pope should look for another stretch 4. That would allow Dioubate to play the 3 spot where he would be a matchup nightmare along with Williams. If Oweh comes back, and I think he will, does Pope play Noah as his backup or Johnson or maybe even Chandler? That’s a good problem to have as a coach, but the odd men out will not be very happy with mop up duty. An injury would change that dynamic and you can’t blame Pope for wanting to have some insurance in that regard after last season. I really think both Chandler and Noah were looking at breakout seasons this year, but only if they get PT and that doesn’t look likely if Johnson is as good as he has been advertised to be.
Until Quaintance is a known commodity, the open scholarship should go to a super big 5 or a stretch 4, and there are still plenty of options for both. Rebounding and defense still need to be addressed. When the dust finally settles on the roster, Pope could have a Final 4 team, but only if the rebounding and defense get addressed.
Pope messed up by not playing Perry against weaker competition. He started playing against Tennessee Auburn and Alabama when the starters were all hurt. I would have jumped right into the portal at the end of the year but he loves Kentucky he was going to give Pope another chance and he seen Pope recruit over him time and time again. I don’t think Aberdeen is as great as everyone is making him out to be. He was a junior only averaging 7 point per game? I think Johnson might be on his level already. I would have much rather had Wilkerson than Alberdeen. Where is the shooter that we needed so bad? Or did he just jump in the portal?
I agree but then if JQ does hit his stride early then someone is getting no playing time. Either a 7’1 shot blocking big or a small very fast point guard behind Lowe we have no true point guard and really Lowe isn’t a true point guard he’s better when can come to the ball. I guess Pope is going to run the point by committee?? Now that Perry is gone and I’m not sold on Oweh coming back until he officially announces it. Everyone acts like they know what’s going to happen but you just have to see how everything plays out.
I think Williams is too slim for SEC play.
Noah might be better.
It’s not a surprise. I said he would transfer on the day he committed. I love Ky guys too, but ones that can play at a high level doesn’t come along very often. Good luck to Perry! The jury is still out on Noah, Johnson, and Merano. They have a shot anyway.
I’ll be rooting for him.
College basketball is like the democrat party.
It’s not even close to what it used to be.
Street ball, thug ball – it’s no longer the same as when Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlin, Rick Barry, Elgin Baylor & the genuinely great players contended within the rules of BB. Carrying the ball without dribbling, pushing & shoving, hacking & holding were not allowed.
Farewell to real college BB.
It has been replaced by thuggery, money, transfers and 1 & done.
Travis Perry should have been playing 15 to 20 minutes per game in the early season & had an offense which included screens set for the 3-shooters including Noah & Chandler as well as Brea.
UK BB… The legendary program suffered under the TLT PLOW & the fraud. But it did not survive NIL & thug style BB – it is not UK when players just wear the jersey for 6 months.
Thanks to Travis Perry for his willingness to play at UK for a year, He made a wise decision to leave. Noah should have gone with him to the same program so Kentuckians could cheer them on together.
A sad day for the old timers who are alumni and remember the real college BB days when UK made history.
Change is the only thing you can count on anymore.
You ain’t lying.
The days of student athletes playing sports while getting an education as a primary objective are gone forever.
I knew this was going to happen and I don’t blame him one bit for this situation. He was recruited over again and again and I get that too Pope has to take the best available guys that he can get so basically college basketball isn’t college basketball anymore. No longer will there be walk ons and no longer do you get guys to develop. They have to be game ready. I just hope he doesn’t sign with a powerhouse program again and lets the game come to him. I would love to see him play for a in state smaller school where he can get the playing time he deserves. I would go with Western Kentucky or Murray state. I love the coach they just got at Murray state and I think Perry would be a day 1 starter or 6th man. He deserves to play the game he loves. He’s put in to much work to sit on the end of the bench. Well we have another scholarship available. I would love to see Pope go after a true point guard because behind Lowe we literally have nobody just a bunch of combo guards. I wonder how this will affect Noah’s decision to stay. Really Noah has the body to handle the SEC and thrive in it. I have a feeling this isn’t the last we see of Travis Perry maybe next year he transfers back. I would do the same thing find somewhere were I’m getting at least 20-25 minutes of action. He deserves it.
Noah will wish he did the same when they start practicing because now he’s the Number 12 man on a 12 man roster. I’ve heard Popes plan for Noah but I never heard a plan for Perry so the writing was on the wall. Maybe Pope told Perry his best bet to play was to find other options hoping for a transfer back one he’s ready? I hope thats the case.
Sources say he’s serious with Ole Miss. I think this would be a bad move for him but hey if they are willing to offer playing time and the right $$ it might end up being a great move for him. Then we can see what kind of player he becomes playing against him. He could always transfer back which I think he ultimately does. College basketball isn’t college basketball anymore.
Go to Ole Miss and get more experience.
He’s a Kentucky kid. He’ll come back to Kentucky junior or Senior year.
It’ll be great!
It breaks my heart but I totally understand why he did it. He has to do what is best for him-not for us. I will cheer for him no matter where he ends up and maybe-hopefully- he will come back to us for his Jr or Sr year. Best of luck to you youngster wherever you decide to go!!
Well, I said a month ago that Perry cant ever become a 6’5” twitchy defender. And wonder of wonders the Pope landed a couple of them.
Wish him the very best.
I hope he excels wherever he goes and teaches UK the same lesson the great shooter who was too slow to play in the SEC according to TLT with the PLOW. Of course, TLT NEVER recruited & coach a player who made it to the FF. You have to be a terrible coach and not understand BB to have the players who came to UK but never made it to the FF if he recruited them.
Chris Lofton lit up the scoreboard for TN against all opponents and exposed TLT for not recruiting a guy 60 miles away who really wanted to go to UK.
Pope dropped way down on my list of coaches who home how to get it done. Perry never got the minutes early in the season to get ready for the SEC play and then recruits every guard from anywhere. No real Power Forwads – just a slew of players who won’t even remember the UK on their jersey.
How can a coach go on and on about Perry as Pope did when talking about hitting 500 of 600 3’s in practice and making 100 FT’s in a row and then recruit every guard he can get to talk to him. Sad to say the fraud used to talk up a player (Willis led UK with 20+ points to beat UL) and say he will get a lot of minutes – and then not even play the very next game – “because he forgot about him”.
Mashburn was an All-American who led UK to the E8 & FF but Pitino knew how to coach to capitalize on Travis Ford by setting screens for Ford who could mail the 3 or find Mashburn for a jumper or dunk if he broke feee.
X & 0 BB is gone for MOST coaches.
$$$$$ BB is not real college BB.
I’ll check in in a few years to see if UK restores the program to be the real UK again.
I don’t need any whipped snappwrs writing nasty comments because I am UK FIRST alumni. Some folks don’t like “American First” – what an interesting parallel!
Been a big UK fan watching Rupp, Hall & Pitino lead UK to sustainable greatness… some great years… and will be again if UK once again become the University KENTUCKY!!!