Kentucky coach Mark Pope said Tuesday he was "devastated" when Travis Perry decided to transfer. (Larry Vaught Photo)
There are no more doubts/questions about how Kentucky coach Mark Pope felt about Travis Perry, the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky high school basketball, transferring to Ole Miss.
“I was devastated when Travis left mostly because I think he’s such a terrific young man,” said Pope during his offseason press conference Tuesday. “I think he’s a really, really special person. I think he’s got an old soul and he’s full of wisdom and he just is everything you want in a young man and a player.
“And then he’s a big-time basketball player. He’s a great talent. It was certainly devastating to me personally because I enjoyed coaching him so much and I think he’s got a brilliant upside. I think he was on his way to becoming a legend here at Kentucky. That was a tough one for us.
“So that made me sad, but you know, he’s going to find a path that works for him and it’s going to be positive. But it’s really tough.”
The 6-1 guard scored a state-record 5,481 career points at Lyon County, a mark that ranks in the top 10 nationally. He led Lyon to the 2024 Kentucky state high school championship and was named Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball.
Perry played in 31 games at UK last season and made four starts when Kentucky’s backcourt was hit with injuries. He averaged 2.7 points and 9.7 minutes per game but hit only 18 of 56 3-pointers, well below his percentage in high school.
Perry entered the transfer portal on April 22 and committed to Ole Miss, his second choice coming out of high school, on May 4.
Kentucky likely returns guard Otega Oweh unless he suddenly shoots up the NBA Draft projections. Transfer guards Jaland Lowe of Pitt and Denzel Aberdeen of Florida could be starters. Returning sophomore Collin Chandler made a big jump late in the season and Pope expects him to be “way better” next season. Incoming freshman Jasper Johnson is a future “superstar” according to what Pope said Tuesday.
Pope understands how challenging a freshman season can be for any player, including Perry.
“You come in as a freshman and everybody is older than you and everybody knows more than you. And you can get tricked into thinking that that’s your college experience, because it’s the only one you have,” the Kentucky coach said.
“But the magical thing about year two is you’re like, ‘Wow, everything is different. I’m the guy who knows what a film session is like. I’m the guy who knows what practice is like. I’m the guy who knows what an individual workout is like. I’m the guy who knows what the SEC is like. I’m the one who knows what BBN is like.’ And it’s a beautiful thing, man, to get to year two.”
Pope added that his players always make a “massive jump” the second year playing for him.
“As a broad brush, you’re just overwhelmed with learning and decision making in year one. That takes time. Learning how to make decisions takes a lot of time and understanding why and where and how and the skill set to actually do it,” Pope said.
“What works and what doesn’t and what works for you as an individual player with your skill set and what doesn’t? So the guys coming in second year for me, almost without fail, they take massive steps.”
4 Responses
So much for his Kentucky roots.
A great talent from the state of KY needs a lot more minutes early in the season to adjust to college ball if he is viewed as a legend. Then he would have been ready for the SEC.
A few mop-up minutes with mop-up players as your teammates in the game when you get your 3 to 5 minutes is not any indication that the coach thinks he will be a legend at UK.
Perry will knock the lights out at Ole Miss if Beard sets up an offense to play to the strength of Perry on about 20 possessions. He will hit 50% from 3 with a real screen and will get 5 assists when extra defenders are assigned to try to stop him.
Coach Mark Pope is a class act and will lead UK to Titles IF he does not let transfers only play Pope Ball in the early season when they want to get positioned for more minutes. Some of the players were going solo after about a dozen games last season – the A:TO ratio tells the tale and exposes those who became selfish.
If ALL the UK players had stayed the course of TEAM BALL 1st, and been loyal to Coach Pope & his select assistants, as was done at the very beginning of the season, and played that way for 40 games, then Banner #9 would now be hanging in Rupp Arena.
To the very few (maybe just 1) nasty mouthed VV follower, go take a hike, you have clashed with so many really good posters on VV that you have to resort to nasty name calling like a bullied elementary kid. Just take that hike into a nice call wooded area and ask the Lord to visit with you. He’s always near and waiting to hear his name called. So, hope you can overcome whatever bitterness which weighs on you.
Blah,blah,blah. Pope let a kid go who thought he was entitled because he was from Ky. Just like the BBN. If it was up to you Pope would have 13 players from Ky. They would lose every game, but it wouldn’t matter to you as long as they were from Ky. You keep saying last years team was selfish. I didn’t see one selfish player. Perry would have been the 14th player off the bench next year. Go see a grief counselor and get over it.
Perry’s leaving made room for Potter. That was a good trade.