Travis Perry Knows Mark Pope’s Offense Will Suit Him

Travis Perry Photo

What have the last two weeks been like for Mr. Basketball Travis Perry of Lyon County after coach John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas and UK hired Mark Pope as the new coach?

“They’ve been wild, but they’ve been pretty fun. It’s just been kind of a whirlwind,” said Perry, a Kentucky signee. “A lot of stuff that you didn’t really expect to happen, happens a lot. But that’s life honestly. A lot of stuff that you don’t see coming in, but just trying to try to figure it out, trying to get everything situated and see what the next move is.”

Perry and his family talked about the coaching change obviously when it happened much like they did his entire recruitment process before he decided to play at Kentucky. After signing with UK in November and just before he’s scheduled to get to campus in  June, a coaching change occurs.

“That’s kind of the world of college basketball right now,” Perry, who scored 20 points Friday to help Kentucky beat Ohio in the all-star game at Thomas More University in northern Kentucky, said.  “It’s ever changing.”

Perry has talked to Pope several times in various ways and talked to him in person after his introductory press conference that over 20,000 UK fans attended at Rupp Arena. Perry was also there.

“He’s a great dude. He’s really excited about Kentucky basketball and is excited about the opportunity. He really knows how much it means to to wear the Kentucky across your chest and I think he’s excited about doing that in a coaching role,” the Lyon County star said.  “He’s got the fans really excited about it.”

Pope’s offense at BYU is also somewhat similar to what Lyon used during Perry’s playing career that ended with him shattering the state’s all-time scoring record.

“He has a really good system. A lot of a lot of high paced, high intensity basketball, shooting a lot of 3’s. That’s something that obviously suits me very well,” Perry, who won the Kentucky-Ohio 3-point shooting contest, said. “It’s very fun to watch his teams play and I think they have a lot of fun playing. I mean, there’s not a lot of one on ones because everything is dictated by  constant movement.”

Pope made it clear that Perry was important to him by recognizing him at his introductory press conference. Kentucky’s other signees have all re-opened their recruitment.

Perry had texted Pope to let him know they were coming to the press conference but were running a bit late.

“That was that was pretty insane. I was surprised by the crowd. How many people that were there for that was wild, and then whenever he shouted me out, that was pretty neat.”

Perry had no better guess than Kentucky fans about what UK’s roster will be like next year after Saturday night’s Kentucky-Ohio game before Drexel transfer Amari Williams announced Sunday he was coming to UK.

“Today in college basketball the (transfer) portal is everything. That’s where a lot of players are coming from. So it’s kind of just just seeing who’s there, seeing who we’re after and going from there,” Perry said.

The roster uncertainty does not alter what Perry will do between now and early June when he reports to Kentucky.

“It’s still just just kind of working on the things I need to work on for college. Getting my body right or as well as I can get it to come in. And then just getting mentally prepared for it,” Perry said.  “College basketball is a different animal. It’s a different world really. So just trying to get prepared for that.”

Perry got a taste of that “different animal” when Calipari resigned and he was getting text messages and social media mentions constantly.

“Definitely a lot of conversations about it and folks in my hometown were really interested,” Perry said. “But I know that’s what it will be like at Kentucky all the time.”