Kentucky freshman Travis Perry is making the most of a situation that nobody saw coming
On the eve of the game at Texas on Saturday, it dawned on Travis Perry that he was about to become the starting point guard for the Kentucky Wildcats.
Lamont Butler and Kerr Kriisa — the team’s two fifth-year point guards — were officially ruled out on Friday night’s SEC injury report. The Cats’ de facto point guard in their place — Jaxson Robinson, another fifth-year player — was ruled out, too, forced to miss a second consecutive game with a wrist injury.
Around the time that injury report was released, Perry got a visit from the man in charge. UK coach Mark Pope approached the college freshman and let him know what the next day would bring.
“He was really just instilling confidence in me,” Perry said. “... Showing me good clips I’ve had all year — offense and defense — just showing me that I’ve done it against the highest level already in the SEC, and just continue to do it at that level. And just kind of reiterating the confidence he has in me to play that role.”
Not only did Perry start, he was the final starter to be subbed out of the game, playing nearly seven minutes without his first trip to the bench. On the Cats’ first possession, the fourth-string point guard drove and found Ansley Almonor for an open 3-pointer in the corner. Almonor missed the shot, but the Cats corralled the offensive rebound and ended up with two points.
Before the first TV timeout, Perry nailed a 3 to give UK a 9-2 lead, forcing the Longhorns to call a timeout of their own. He ended up playing 28 minutes, doubling his previous season high.
Perry was also on the court for pretty much all of the final six minutes and change. In a close game against a quality SEC opponent on the road. Even among the most ardent supporters of in-state players, surely no one had any of that on their UK basketball bingo card before this season began.
Back then, the talk in Kentucky fan circles — as well as the hallways of the Joe Craft Center — centered on how exactly Pope would be able to properly deploy both Butler and Kriisa, a combination viewed as a coup out of the transfer portal. Would they play together? If not, would Pope have enough minutes for both of them?
At the time, no one gave much thought to a scenario in which neither would be playing at all.
When the instance first arose — after Kriisa injured his foot in the second half of the Gonzaga game, with Butler already watching from the bench with a sprained ankle — Pope turned to Robinson, his trusted player from two seasons at BYU.
Robinson closed out the victory that night and filled in when the situation called for it in the games that followed. In the meantime, Perry started to get more minutes.
Travis Perry’s rise at Kentucky
The top scorer in Kentucky high school basketball history, Perry was viewed as the 11th man on the UK roster coming into the season. He impressed teammates with his shooting ability and coaches with his bring-it-everyday attitude in the early going, but there didn’t appear to be many immediate opportunities for an undersized freshman on a squad with so many veterans.
Perry — officially listed at 6-1 and 188 pounds, more of a scoring guard than a true point — didn’t play at all in the win over Duke or the loss at Clemson. Even with Butler ruled out of the Gonzaga game and Kriisa leaving that one early, Perry got on the court for only two minutes.
He never played double-digit minutes in a game until Dec. 31 against Brown and didn’t hit that mark against a high-major opponent until playing 10 minutes in a win over Texas A&M two weeks later.
In the victory over the Aggies — now the No. 7 team in the country — Perry drained two big 3-pointers and came up with a steal. It was the same game that Butler suffered the left shoulder injury that he’s been battling ever since, and Perry played a part in the Cats earning a victory.
“If you chart his trajectory, you just get to see these little steps that he’s taking. We all get to see it,” Pope said that night. “It’s one of the great things about coaching and being fans that are really invested, which is BBN. Because you actually get to see like the beginning and the middle and the growth, and then we get to prognosticate about where they’re going. And to see these guys grow is special. TP is definitely doing that. This is a high-pressure game. It’s a top-10 game against one of the best defenses in the country, and he was terrific.”
Robinson, perhaps the UK player least prone to hyperbole, was also effusive in his praise.
“He’s been stepping up huge,” he said. “Every time he gets on the court, he looks way more comfortable. So I’m excited for TP. He’s got a bright future. And I think these minutes and being able to be coached by Jason Hart and be mentored by Lamont Butler — one of the best point guards in the country — like, if I was a freshman and I had that … it’d be crazy.
“So I feel really happy for him, and I’m excited just to see his progress and growth.”
Hart — a former NBA point guard — is UK’s designated assistant coach for that position group. Obviously, much of his time in the preseason was spent helping Butler and Kriisa along — getting them on board with Pope’s style of play — but Perry was in the learning mix, too.
“He’s been great,” Hart told the Herald-Leader in the fall. “He’s been extremely hard working, dedicated. He has a determination to be the best, and I’m happy he’s here. I’m happy he’s allowing us to coach him, and he’s gonna be a good player.”
While Perry often played with the ball in his hands as a high schooler, he wasn’t really a “point guard” — not in the same way Pope and the Wildcats need him to play now, at least.
Adjusting to that new role — scoring less, facilitating more — took some time. Adjusting to the speed and physicality of the college game did, too. Along the way, the UK coaches encouraged Perry to balance all of that with the confidence and aggressiveness that made him such a great high school player in the first place.
“He’s so dialed in on our progression — just being able to help me on both sides of the ball,” Perry said of Hart. “I would attribute a lot of the comfort to him just telling me, anytime I go in there, to be quick, to shoot it. Like, he knows how much work I put in, how much confidence I have in myself to shoot the ball. And he really gives me a lot of confidence to do that and just play free.
“That’s something he’s always talking about. ‘Play free.’ Like, playing basketball — it’s supposed to be fun. It’s not supposed to be any pressure. And I think I’m kind of getting that point.”
A big chance with UK basketball
After that Texas A&M game, Perry took a bit of a backseat.
He didn’t tally a point in any of UK’s next three games — losses to Alabama and Vanderbilt, and a win over Tennessee — and then had three points and two turnovers in eight minutes against Arkansas, another loss, this time to former UK coach John Calipari, who had recruited him to Lexington in the first place.
Perry scored five points in a then-career-high 14 minutes at Ole Miss, but it ended up being arguably Kentucky’s worst game of the season. Four days later, Butler returned to the court, and Perry played only three scoreless minutes off the bench in a win over South Carolina.
Before UK’s next game — a home rematch with Tennessee — the Cats’ starting point guard reflected on Perry’s season to that point and talked about what he had observed of the freshman, both in practice and from watching on the bench while out with his injury.
“I just think he’s been getting a lot more comfortable,” Butler said. “I think it’s tough to go from a freshman not playing, to now you’re playing in big minutes and big games. So I just think he’s been getting a lot more comfortable throughout the games, hitting big-time shots.
“He’s guarding his butt off now, fighting through screens and things like that. So I think practice was just, you know, I was just trying to get him ready for these moments, and I think he’s been doing a great job.”
The next night, Butler re-injured his shoulder. Pope immediately subbed Perry in his place. Others finished out that game, but the freshman ended up with a career-high eight points — including five in the second half — in 12 minutes on the court. The Cats beat the Vols 75-64, and Perry and fellow freshman Trent Noah combined for 19 points.
When it was clear that Butler, Kriisa and Robinson would all be sidelined for the next game at Texas, the Kentucky coach decided that — rather than realign positional responsibilities once again to keep as many veterans as possible in the starting five — he would go with his freshman.
“He steps on the court every single time, (and) he’s fearless and he goes about his business,” Pope said before the Texas game. “He’s going to make some mistakes, because he’s young, and everybody makes mistakes in this game. But, he’s fully capable. He’s unbelievably confident — really, really aggressive. He’s made huge plays in huge games for us. He’s just coming off a terrific game. So, he’ll be really good for us.”
What’s next for Travis Perry?
Perry ended up with six points, three assists, two rebounds, one steal and three turnovers in Kentucky’s 82-78 loss at Texas on Saturday night. It wasn’t a perfect game, by any means. Perry had his high points, but there were some low ones, too.
The Cats led the game with four minutes to go before enduring a 14-1 run that sent them to defeat, and Perry had one ugly turnover in that stretch that directly led to the Longhorns’ go-ahead points. Afterward, Pope criticized that play specifically, but he lauded Perry’s play, on the whole.
“Travis Perry stepped up and really battled like crazy tonight,” the UK coach said.
While Perry — one of the most decorated high school players in Kentucky history — might seem like a novelty to fans across the commonwealth, Pope’s comments have shown that the UK coach views him as simply one more important player on the roster.
He’s earned a certain level of confidence, and — Kentucky kid or not — he’s being held to just as high a standard of accountability as the veteran players on the team. And he’s grown as a result.
“I think it’s done a lot for me,” Perry said. “I know my confidence has grown a ton through it. Just getting more comfortable out there. Filling in in a different spot at the college level is a pretty tall task. So I’ve been blessed with opportunities, but also cursed with opportunities for our team. Like, we’ve got guys that are great basketball players that are having to miss some games. But I think it’s gonna make us better for March. For all the guys like me, Trent that are getting a lot of minutes now — come March, we’ll be ready, we’ll be confident.
“But I think it’s just done a lot for my game. It’s helped me grow a lot — grow into a college basketball player, like I need to be.”
With Butler, Kriisa and Robinson all ruled out on the injury report ahead of Kentucky’s rematch with Vanderbilt on Wednesday night, Perry made his second consecutive start, playing 26 minutes in an 82-61 victory over the Commodores.
He scored six points — courtesy of a couple of 3-pointers — and dished out two assists. Perry committed three turnovers against Vanderbilt, but all three came in the game’s final minutes, the first with UK already up 15 points and well on its way to a victory. It wasn’t a flashy performance, but Pope liked the defensive effort.
“I thought Travis Perry had a really, really hard job tonight,” he said. “And I thought he stood in there admirably.”
This start came in Rupp Arena, where he broke the state scoring record as a junior and won the state championship in his final high school game as a senior.
A few weeks after that state title victory, Perry was back in Rupp — the only future UK player in attendance for Pope’s introductory press conference/pep rally. At the time, Perry hadn’t fully affirmed his commitment to the new Kentucky coach, though that would come a short time later.
Nearly a year has passed since that day, and Perry finds himself in an unexpected role on a team that — despite all the injury troubles — still harbors legitimate Final Four hopes.
Along the way, the attention Perry received — even as the presumed 11th man on the roster — was crucial in preparing him for the situation he’s in now. A year ago, Pope and Perry didn’t know each other at all. Since they’ve met, the coach has become one of the freshman’s biggest cheerleaders, while at the same time holding him accountable amid a difficult college transition.
“Off the court, he’s a great dude,” Perry said. “You know, he’s always there for you. It’s not always just basketball with him. He talks about family, everything like that. But then also — on the confidence side of it — that’s something you need from a coach. I think anybody needs it from a coach, whether they’re a freshman coming in that is playing extended minutes now because of injuries, or whether it’s a fifth-year guy that’s played and started every game of his career — they still need confidence instilled in them.
“I think he does a great job of that. He tells us when we mess up and we need to get better. But he also shows us that we’ve done it many times before, and how much confidence he has in us to do it again. So that’s something that’s really important.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
