The legend of Travis Perry grew by the day in Lexington this summer, something otherworldly added to his resume with each practice. First, Andrew Carr said the Lyon County native hit 59 corner three-pointers in a row. From there, he not only knocked down 100 of 100 attempts at the free throw line, but did it on three consecutive days.
His teammates couldn’t stop raving about his white-hot start as a Wildcat.
“Travis is phenomenal,” Kerr Kriisa said in July. “I’ve had some pretty good shooters around me but he’s definitely up there.”
“I’ve seen a lot of great shooters in my four years of college,” Amari Williams added. “… Seeing how many threes he makes, it’s crazy.”
Kentucky assistant Jason Hart doubled down on the hype after the team returned back from summer break going into the fall semester and preseason practice. In an appearance on KSR’s Sources Say Podcast earlier this month, he said the hope for the coaching staff is Perry proves his eight-week stretch of setting the world on fire as a shooter wasn’t a fluke.
Their early hunch, though, is the four-star out of Eddyville is for real.
“(Perry) had a great summer in shooting. His skill development, he shot the ball extremely well,” Hart said. “We’re just ready for that to carry over. Like every freshman, it’s a learning curve. You’ve got to learn and with that comes some patience and stuff but he’s doing really well and he’s a heck of a shooter, by the way.”
What are Mark Pope‘s thoughts on the very first player he ever discussed publicly after taking the Kentucky job back in April — remember when he called out Perry in front of 20K strong at Rupp Arena, plus the hundreds of thousands watching online?
He first started talking about the in-state standouts together before singling out Perry’s individual play and approach to the game.
“Travis Perry and Trent Noah, they have been awesome. I mean, I’m so proud of those two kids. They have grown so much, they kind of came in here just excited, eager, hungry,” Pope said Thursday morning on KSR. “Travis Perry just has this — he walks around with confidence and I think he’s growing so much. I think he’s having fun growing.”
And then he got to the good stuff: Perry’s summer, again confirming the 6-1 guard’s streak of 100 made free throws on three consecutive days.
For a guy who has played and coached a lot of basketball over the years, Pope will be the first to admit that was something he’s never seen with his own two eyes.
“He had three straight — I’ve never seen this at any level of basketball,” the Kentucky head coach said. “Our guys were doing some shooting series during the course of the summer and he had three straight days where he made 100 of 100 free throws. Three straight.
“I’ve never heard of that before. It’s great.”
Can’t say we have either, Coach.
