An unheralded ex-UK basketball player is breaking out in a big way this season
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Jordan Burks has emerged as UCF’s leading scorer, averaging 13.8 points.
- Kentuckians are off to strong starts for Western Kentucky basketball
- ZaKiyah Johnson has energized LSU, averaging 12.2 points and 5.8 rebounds.
Fast-break points from the Times Square ball drop:
21. An ex-Cat breaks out. Without a lot of fanfare, former Kentucky men’s hoops forward Jordan Burks is putting together a high-level season for Central Florida (11-1).
20. The Knights’ leading scorer. Burks is leading UCF, which has victories over the SEC’s Texas A&M and the ACC’s Pittsburgh, with a scoring average of 13.8 points a game. The 6-foot-9, 205-pound junior had 21 points in Central Florida’s 86-74 win at Texas A&M on Nov. 14.
19. Not many chances at Kentucky. A product of Decatur, Alabama, Burks played only 140 minutes in 19 games in his one season (2023-24) at UK. He scored 37 points and grabbed 33 rebounds as a Wildcat.
18. Now a shot maker. After producing middling results (5.7 points, 3.4 rebounds) playing last season for Ed Cooley and Georgetown, Burks has found his groove playing for Johnny Dawkins at UCF. Through 12 games, Burks is shooting 49.1% and has hit 39.6% of his 3-point tries and 86.5% of his foul shots.
17. An impressive showing at Duke. Burks has scored 13 points or more in eight of UCF’s 12 games to date. But his most impressive performance of the season so far came in a game that didn’t count. In the Knights’ 96-71 loss at Duke in an exhibition, Burks hit 9 of 12 shots, 3 of 5 treys, and scored 21 points.
16. The Big 12 test. In the rugged Big 12 Conference, Burks and UCF will get many chances to show their early-season successes are for real. That will start Saturday, when No. 17 Kansas visits Orlando.
15. Travis Perry. The former UK guard got off to a brutal start this season for his new team, Mississippi. In the Rebels’ first seven games, the 6-1, 185-pound sophomore made only 7 of 36 field goal attempts.
14. Finding a groove. Over the past five Ole Miss games, however, Perry has started to get his jump shot dialed in. The former Lyon County star has made 15 of 29 shots in those five contests, including going 7 of 13, 5 of 11 on 3-pointers, and scoring 21 points in a 76-62 loss to North Carolina State on Dec. 21.
13. Return to Rupp Arena. UK fans will get another first-hand look at Perry on Jan. 24, when Mississippi visits Kentucky for a high noon tip-off.
12. Armelo Boone thriving. The former Frederick Douglass and Woodford County guard is off to a flying start to his men’s college basketball career at Western Kentucky.
11. Raking in the weekly honors. Even before 2025 turns to 2026, the 6-4, 175-pound Boone has been named Conference USA Freshman of the Week four times.
10. Living in double figures. In 11 contests for WKU (7-4), Boone has scored 11 points or more eight times, with a season-high 22 points in a 75-70 win over Wichita State on Nov. 28. On the season, he is averaging 12 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
9. Another in-state player starring for WKU. After missing last season due to a hip injury, former Owen County star Teagan Moore has become Western’s best player as a redshirt sophomore. The 6-5, 220-pound Moore is WKU’s leading scorer at 17.4 points a game and is also averaging 5.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists.
8. Good news for Matthew Mitchell. In his first season as Houston women’s basketball coach, the former UK head man has the Cougars at 6-6 heading into a New Year’s Eve meeting with No. 10 Iowa State (13-0). The six victories are one more than Houston had all last season (5-25).
7. Bad news for Matthew Mitchell. In Houston’s Big 12 opener at West Virginia on Dec. 21, the Cougars were pulverized 101-46. The fact that there are four Big 12 teams currently in the women’s AP Top 25 and three others receiving votes does not bode well for what lies ahead in 2025-26 for Mitchell.
6. Ceal Barry. A Louisville product who was a Kentucky Wildcats team captain while playing women’s basketball at UK in the mid-1970s, Barry went on to earn induction into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018 largely due to her coaching success at Colorado.
5. Three trips to the elite eight. From 1983 through 2005, Barry led Colorado to 422 wins, four Big 8 regular season titles, five league tournament championships and to 12 NCAA Tournaments — with three trips to the elite eight.
4. Colorado shows its gratitude. On Jan. 25, Colorado will name the west plaza outside its CU Events Center the “Ceal Barry Plaza.” In announcing the honor, Colorado athletics director Rick George said “Ceal Barry is the personification of everything that CU athletics and our university stand for.”
3. ZaKiyah Johnson. The former Sacred Heart Academy star is the most-decorated girls basketball player in our state’s history. Johnson is a four-time state champion, four-time state tournament MVP, four-time Gatorade Kentucky Player of the Year and both Kentucky’s 2025 Miss Basketball and a 2025 McDonald’s All-American.
2. Off to a strong start in college. Through 14 games of her freshman season for Kim Mulkey and LSU, Johnson, a 6-foot wing, is averaging 12.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and making 64.4% of her field goal attempts.
1. A wistful meeting. When No. 11 Kentucky (13-1) opens SEC play Thursday night at No. 5 LSU (14-0), no one should blame UK fans if they feel a bit doleful that a player with such a storied place in the commonwealth’s hoops history as Johnson’s will be playing against our state’s flagship university.
