Travis Perry, still a Kentucky signee, talks about his potential UK future with Mark Pope
Among the thousands of people that packed into every corner of Rupp Arena on Sunday afternoon for an event and press conference introducing new UK basketball head coach Mark Pope, one spectator stood out in importance.
Class of 2024 UK men’s basketball signee Travis Perry (along with his father Ryan) attended the event decked out in Kentucky gear.
Travis, the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky boys high school basketball history with 5,481 career points at Lyon County High School, was one of six players in the 2024 recruiting class who committed to the Wildcats under former head coach John Calipari.
Of that group, Perry was one of four players who signed a national letter of intent to come to Lexington.
Following Calipari’s departure last week to become the new head coach at Arkansas, that recruiting class has fallen apart: Signees Somto Cyril and Jayden Quaintance (both centers) and verbal commit Karter Knox (a small forward) have all decommitted.
Guard Boogie Fland (signee) and small forward Billy Richmond (verbal commit) have yet to publicly comment on their status.
While Perry isn’t setting anything in stone, momentum is growing toward Perry sticking with his initial commitment and playing at Kentucky.
Perry acknowledged to reporters Sunday that he remains a Kentucky signee, although it was clear that he plans to have several meetings with Pope before determining his college plans.
“As of right now, I’m still signed. Obviously (I) haven’t gotten to really sit down with Coach Pope, but that’s something I want to do in the future,” Travis said. “... Hopefully get up here again sometime in the future and get to have a conversation with him. Kind of see where things go from there.”
Perry — who has already had several video calls with Pope — said he doesn’t want to establish a timeline for when he determines where he will be playing college basketball next season.
“Just kind of take it as it goes, I get to have the conversations with (Pope) that are important,” Perry said. “We get to sit down with him, just kind of see what the plan is, see what he’s thinking and then we’ll decide what we’re thinking.”
Ryan Perry — Travis’ father and his high school coach at Lyon County, a tandem that culminated in a Sweet 16 state championship for the Lyons in March — said his son has “loved everything he’s heard so far” from Pope.
“Energetic, positive, everything’s been great so far,” Ryan told the Herald-Leader. “I know we’ve got some time this week when (Travis) is going to sit down with (Pope), but I mean ... we love everything about Coach Pope so far. We think it’s trending in the right direction. It feels really good.”
“You can’t really replicate the excitement that he has, the love he has for Big Blue Nation,” Travis Perry added about Pope. “... The energy that he’s bringing, obviously, (he) has 23,000 people on their feet today. So it’s pretty incredible to see.”
When responding to a question from the media about his philosophy when it comes to in-state recruiting, Pope shouted out several past players who stayed home and thrived on the floor with the Wildcats.
Richie Farmer (Clay County) and Reed Sheppard (North Laurel) were the first names spoken.
The next name? That of Perry, who stood up and received a standing ovation from the Kentucky fans.
“There is a good chance (Perry) will not jump into the portal, guys. But before Richie and after Travis and everybody in between that is an in-state Kentucky kid, these young men that grow up in Kentucky, they bring a spirit to the team that cannot be fabricated or replaced,” Pope said. “And it helps us to win, and we will continue to recruit them.”
Travis, a 6-foot-2 senior guard who committed to and signed with the Wildcats last November, was the 2024 Kentucky Mr. Basketball out of Lyon County, where he was a varsity starter since the seventh grade.
Of the six members of Kentucky’s 2024 recruiting class, Perry was expected to be the only one who would seriously entertain sticking with the Wildcats after Calipari’s departure for Arkansas.
The other finalists in Perry’s recruitment were Alabama, Cincinnati, Ole Miss and Western Kentucky.
Perry — who ranks as a four-star recruit and the No. 81 overall player in the 2024 recruiting class according to the 247Sports Composite — represents an important initial recruitment for Pope, UK’s new head coach and a former national champion with the Cats.
Between players entering the NCAA transfer portal, declaring for the NBA draft and the aforementioned decommits from UK’s incoming recruiting class, there are precious few pieces currently in place for Pope in Lexington.
From last season’s 2023-24 roster, the following players have already announced future plans that probably won’t involve Kentucky: Rob Dillingham and Justin Edwards have declared for the 2024 NBA draft. Aaron Bradshaw, Joey Hart, Zvonimir Ivisic and Adou Thiero have entered the NCAA transfer portal. Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves have exhausted their college eligibility.
Several walk-on players from last season’s Kentucky team were on hand Sunday at Rupp Arena for Pope’s introductory event.
In another bit of recruiting insight, Pope said that sometimes a one-and-done All-America recruit (as was commonplace during the Calipari era) will be part of his recruiting plans.
But, Pope also said players who spend multiple seasons playing college basketball in Lexington will also be central to his recruiting endeavors.
Travis and Ryan Perry pleased with Mark Pope’s offensive style
Both Travis and Ryan have studied tape of Pope’s past teams at BYU and Utah Valley. They like what they’ve seen.
Pope went 110-51 in five seasons at BYU, leading the Cougars to NCAA Tournament berths in 2021 and 2024. His team was also on track to make the March Madness field in 2020 — his first season as the Cougars’ coach — before the tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At Utah Valley, Pope led three of his four teams to postseason appearances in the College Basketball Invitational.
He won games while playing an aesthetically pleasing and analytically driven style of basketball.
Pope’s modern offense was on full display last season: The Cougars’ five-out offense produced 81.4 points per game and 32 attempted 3s per contest.
“They definitely play a fun brand of basketball, a fun style of basketball,” Travis said. “They play together, they play for each other and that’s something that you can kind of see by listening to him today. That he really embodies about the betterment of the team and, obviously, they shoot a lot of 3s. That’s something that’s really intriguing to me.”
Ryan said he watched BYU play three or four times during the 2023-24 season, and that he dug into more BYU film last week.
“The more I watched his team play, it looked like (how) our Lyon County High School team played,” Ryan said. “The schematics ... the pace. It really looked a lot the same. Me and Travis had those conversations, and that’s really appealing, because we’ve gotten really comfortable the last four or five years playing that way. That’s definitely enticing for sure.”
Travis echoed his father’s sentiments that BYU’s style of play under Pope mirrored that of Lyon County’s.
“Threes are worth more than 2s, so I think he’s got that philosophy,” Travis said of Pope.
How did the Perry family react to John Calipari’s departure?
Travis’ entire recruitment by Kentucky — from a scholarship offer in June 2022 to his commitment to the Wildcats last November — came with Calipari as UK’s head coach.
When news arrived last week that Calipari was stepping down from his post at UK, it threw a major wrench into the Perry family’s plans.
“That was a tough week, I’m not going to lie,” Ryan said. “A lot of emotion. We had a relationship with Coach Cal for a long time. We love Coach Cal. Our whole family loved Coach Cal. I think Coach Cal loved our family. And so, we had built an interesting relationship and yeah, it turned things upside down for us.”
What did Travis think when Calipari left UK?
“It’s obviously pretty crazy, a lot of people thought that might never happen. But the world of college basketball right now is pretty crazy,” Travis said. “It’s a tough business. A lot of changes, moving parts. It was just a little bit of trying to figure out what the situation was, what the steps were going to be moving forward, just trying to get all of the information. That’s pretty much what it was.”
Travis said he learned Pope was being hired as Kentucky’s head coach on Friday morning while traveling to Frankfort to be honored by lawmakers with his Lyon County team for winning the Sweet 16 state tournament.
“It was a little bit of a shock, I didn’t really know who they were going to hire, honestly. I don’t think anybody did,” Travis said. “Then you see all of the stuff — all of the excitement that he has and all of the love that he has for the University of Kentucky — and it excites you, obviously, to have an opportunity to play for a coach like that.”
Travis Perry and father return to Rupp Arena after winning Sweet 16
The last time Travis and Ryan were in Rupp Arena, they went home with a state championship trophy.
Perry had a game-high 27 points and five assists in last month’s Sweet 16 title game win for Lyon County over Harlan County, which boasts a top class of 2024 in-state recruit of its own in South Carolina signee Trent Noah.
How did Sunday’s event compare to that state championship game win?
“This is different. There’s just a pulse to this today. You can feel it,” Ryan said of Sunday’s capacity crowd for Pope’s introduction. “... Back-to-back times (in Rupp) feeling like that, got a good thing going right now.”
“It’s pretty incredible to see the welcome back,” Travis added. “And to see just how excited (fans) get when somebody like that, that’s had a lot of success here and really can win, is back.”
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