Kentucky’s not-so-secret weapon could be the key to winning in March. And he’s evolving
Koby Brea has shown more offensive versatility in recent weeks. Anyone paying attention to Kentucky basketball has noticed it — the sight of Brea driving toward the basket more often, finding an open teammate or finishing the play himself with a crafty move near the rim.
The fifth-year college player has also stepped up his game on the defensive end. His increased intensity on that side of the ball has coincided directly with UK’s team gains defensively, no coincidence as these Cats head into tournament time as more capable stoppers than they have been for much of the season.
But as much as Brea has improved in those areas — and as excited as Mark Pope and the Wildcats’ coaching staff must be by those strides — there remains one aspect of his game that will always stand out above all others.
Brea can flat out shoot the basketball. And the latest reminder of that came on the final day of the regular season Saturday, when Kentucky’s offense was sputtering early and needed a spark.
The Cats missed seven of their first eight shots — and 10 of their first 12 — and had scored just seven points near the midway point of the first half at Missouri when Brea got the ball on the perimeter. The Tigers’ Mark Mitchell — a 6-foot-9 player — was standing right in front of Brea, but the UK guard let his first 3-point attempt of the game fly anyway. It went in, kick-starting a run in which the previously ice-cold Cats made 11 of 17 shots to close the half, going 5-for-7 from long range in that stretch.
Brea had 11 points in the flurry. His second 3-pointer — also contested — came from one step in front of the Missouri logo at halfcourt. His third came toward the end of the half, the 6-7 guard matched up near the top of the key with Trent Pierce, a 6-10 defender. Brea danced around with a dizzying array of dribble moves — he went between his legs with the ball six times during this sequence — before getting Pierce to bite on what looked like a drive attempt and then stepping back to nail another deep ball.
“You don’t want to be on an island with Koby Brea,” said ESPN analyst Dane Bradshaw. “You know he’s gonna shoot the 3. He knows he’s gonna shoot the 3. And you still can’t stop it.”
Brea is more than just a 3-point threat — he’s shown his ability beyond scoring from the perimeter over these last few weeks — but he can still shoot the lights out from deep, and that’s the kind of player that can win a team a game or two (or more) this time of year.
For all of his individual improvement leading up to the most important time on the college basketball calendar, Brea still has that special skill that few possess. And his teammates know they’ll be sharing the court with a guy who’s always a flick of the wrist away from igniting a run, even when it looks like an offensive possession might be going nowhere.
“He’s been amazing for us all year,” Andrew Carr said after the 91-83 win over Missouri. “You know, he’s super consistent for us. Every single day, he’s ready to work and try and get better. And you see that out there on the court. And definitely, it’s great when you’re through an offense, and then you just see Koby dancing at the top. And sometimes you’re tempted to just start running back on defense.”
Carr laughed at that thought. So did Pope, who looked over at Brea, and he couldn’t help but laugh, too.
“Probably shouldn’t do that, necessarily,” Carr acknowledged. “But we’re always tempted to. So it’s a credit to him and how hard he’s worked. But he’s been that for us all year.”
Pope reached out and grabbed Brea on the shoulder. The UK player turned toward Carr.
“I appreciate that, bro,” Brea told his teammate.
The evolution of Koby Brea
Bradshaw was correct that no defender wants to be on an island with Brea, but his assertion that all involved know the veteran player is going to let one go from 3-point range wasn’t quite right.
Brea’s offensive attack has evolved over the past few weeks. It’s surely part of the reason all those dribble moves resulted in enough daylight to knock down that third 3-pointer Saturday, and it was apparent the very next trip down the floor, when Mizzou put Jacob Crews on Brea.
This time, Brea was blanketed by Crews about 30 feet from the basket. He took the defender down to the block, spun and then hit a fadeaway jumper. That shot gave UK a 10-point lead and forced a Missouri timeout.
A few weeks ago, Brea might not have attempted such a maneuver, no matter how hot he felt offensively at that moment. But as UK’s injuries in the backcourt piled up and more and more opposing coaches concentrated on keeping Brea off the perimeter, a change was needed.
“I know that I’m being run off the (3-point) line a lot, and obviously all the attention goes to my shooting,” he said recently. “Everybody wants to make sure I don’t get shots. But I feel I have counters to that. So just getting some paint touches — and trying to get a bucket for myself or for my teammates — I know that’s something I can do.”
Brea had a career high six assists in UK’s win over South Carolina on Feb. 8. Three days later, he made a no-look pass to Otega Oweh to basically ice a victory over No. 5 Tennessee.
“Ah, man. That was probably one of the top plays of my career, honestly,” Brea said that night.
That comment — talking about the importance of an assist, not a shot — drove home that Brea’s priorities in his final season of college basketball lie not with knocking down as many 3s as possible but with helping the Wildcats win games.
There was a noticeable shift that started with UK’s 98-84 loss at Ole Miss four days before that South Carolina game, a defeat that was even uglier than the final score would indicate. In the days between those games, Pope challenged Brea to be a better defender. And he reiterated his desire for Brea to make more happen inside the 3-point arc.
This is stuff that Brea has been working on since he arrived in Lexington. But the improvements have been more noticeable these past few weeks.
“He’s made big steps all season long. He really has made big steps,” Pope said after that Tennessee game. “Sometimes, though, the moment is what spurs us on to become something we’ve wanted to become. And for Koby, the moment was super clear. Like, the moment for our team was really clear, right? It was just like, ‘Guys, this is an emergency situation right now. There’s actually not someone else to go to. We’re using all of the guys. And now it’s just time for the guys, for us, to be better.’
“And I think as we grow, we go through fits and starts, where we plateau a little bit. We don’t see it or understand it — something that’s so simple. And then all of a sudden, we get knocked across the head, and all of a sudden we see it.”
Pope said Brea started seeing it after that loss to Ole Miss. He had a versatile, standout performance in the win over South Carolina, and then — the day before the Tennessee game — Pope asked Brea if he was going to bring that same energy again.
“And I’m like, ‘Coach, I’m doing this every game, every practice now.’ It’s just about me trying to better myself and understand that I’m not just doing it for myself, but for my team as well,” Brea said. “So I’m just trying to go out there and give my all every time.”
A spark for Kentucky basketball
It’s no secret to anyone that Brea can shoot.
The former Dayton player was the most coveted perimeter threat in the transfer portal last year, arguably the most highly touted 3-point shooter in the country coming into the 2024-25 season.
He made a total of 100 3-pointers at a 49.8% clip with the Flyers last season, and he ended this regular season at 44.0% from long range, tops nationally among high-major players with enough attempts to qualify for the leaderboard in 3-point shooting.
At the beginning of the season, Brea was plenty productive for the Cats, but he often seemed to be resting on his laurels as a 3-point threat. Pope said that’s not uncommon for such a player.
“You come in with this incredibly relaxed confidence, because you’re the vet. ‘I’ve done this before. I’ve been here.’ And so you kind of have this space in the offseason and the early season where you’re like, ‘This is this. Man, I’m here. I know.’ And then you have this little run where it’s like, ‘This is it. This is my last chance.’ And that’s terrifying,” the UK coach said recently.
“And a lot of times you see maybe some regression or the pressure starts to get you. And then you see this a lot of times, man — seniors are magic. I’ve said this my entire coaching career. Seniors are magic. And then you see this down the stretch, where it’s like, ‘OK, I’m super confident. I have that. I’ve dealt with all the pressure. And I know that now I can only focus on the things I control, and I’m ready to just roll it out there and see what we have.’ And then you get this beautiful cocktail down the stretch where seniors do great, incredible, magnificent things. And maybe he’s in that space right now.”
That’s the space where everyone associated with Kentucky basketball wants Brea to be living.
It starts with the SEC Tournament, but the NCAA Tournament is obviously the ultimate prize, and Brea has the ability to be a difference-maker in March Madness.
The Wildcats have enjoyed a noticeable turnaround on defense, in part because of Brea’s attention to detail on that side of the ball. The broadening of his offensive game has led to positive ripple effects for others on the team.
Pope will hope that remains the case down the stretch.
But that shooting ability that Brea possesses is rare. And it’s the type of thing that can turn a close game in March. Look back at Kentucky’s prolonged runs through the NCAA Tournament, and there’s often a shot here or there — or maybe a quick flurry of them — that sparked the Cats to a close win in an early-round game to keep that special season going.
More than anyone else on this UK team — perhaps more than anyone else in the country — Brea is capable of such a thing.
This season is already filled with examples.
He went 7-for-9 from deep in UK’s 106-100 win over Florida, which will almost certainly be a 1 seed on Selection Sunday. He went 3-for-3 from long range in the Cats’ upset win at Tennessee, which will likely be a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Two weeks later, he went 3-for-6 on 3-pointers — hitting two crucial ones in the final minutes — for another win over the Vols. And there was that shooting display on the final day of the regular season, silencing Mizzou Arena and catapulting the Cats to a big victory on the road.
There’s a lot more to Brea’s game now than he showed at the start of this season. But it’s his best trait — the one that had every blue blood in the country wanting him last spring — that might end up taking Kentucky a long way into March.
And amid all the gains elsewhere, Brea — and everyone that shares a gym with him — knows he can light up the scoreboard at any moment.
In that win over Tennessee in Rupp last month, Brea hit one 3 late in the game to give the Cats the lead for good. Two minutes later — right before he found Oweh with that no-look dime for the dagger — Brea hit another 3 to make it a six-point advantage with two minutes left.
“Honestly, it wasn’t really much thinking going on,” he said that night. “It was just playing the game, understanding the situation that we were in and what we needed. And I just felt like I have confidence in myself, and I feel like the team has confidence in me, too.
“You know, I can take them shots and make ’em.”
