Koby Brea talks about waiting on Mark Pope’s phone call because he wanted to play for Kentucky…..
Koby Brea talks about waiting on Mark Pope’s phone call because he wanted to play for Kentucky…..
Of Kentucky’s nine transfer portal additions made this offseason, none made more sense from a scheme fit perspective than the signing of former Dayton guard Koby Brea.
Brea, a fifth-year senior who spent four seasons at Dayton, shot a near coin-flip 49.8 percent from three last season for a Flyers team that reached the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32. In his first four college seasons, Brea owns a career three-point shooting percentage of 43.4, knocking down 224 of his 516 career attempts from deep.
New Kentucky head coach Mark Pope‘s BYU Cougars shot the second most three’s in America last season attempting 32.0 shots from beyond the arc finishing only behind North Florida’s average of 33.2 three-point attempts.
“That was the biggest draw for me. I was probably coming here just to see how perfect the system was for me,” Brea said. Coach Pope did a great job of explaining to me where I can excel in the offense, the hit system in general, and the defensive system as well.
“I’m really excited not only for me but, man, we have shooters all over the court, so it’s going to be hard for teams to stop one person because you’re going to have to worry about four others at the same time.”
Brea’s elite three-point shot was heavily coveted on the transfer market as he picked Kentucky over a blueblood filled final five that also included Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Uconn.
“I mean, it’s the University of Kentucky,” Brea, a New York City native, said. “I can’t stop saying it enough.
“It has always been a dream of mine to come here since I was little. Karl [Anthony] Towns played here, he was a Dominican as well, he wasn’t too far from me, he was in New Jersey. Devin Booker is my favorite player. Just to be in this environment with so many greats and every day you walk in, the first thing you see in that gym is those banners, and as a player, that’s enough motivation right there.”
Brea’s outstanding three-point shooting during the 2023-24 season is even more remarkable consdiering he was unable to partcipate in much of his team’s offseason workouts and practicies, let alone stand on his own two feet due to injury after he had rods inserted in both lower legs to address stress fractures in his tibias on April 6 of 2023.
“People don’t know much about the whole process last year,” Brea said. “The first two months (after surgery), I was in a wheelchair; I couldn’t do anything. Then, the next two months, I was on a walker and then crutches, so I literally came back for my first workout two weeks before the season, so I only had two weeks to really get some work in and get my body feeling like, right to a place where I can actually play.
“Then once the game started rolling, it kind of gets a little crazy, but I was able to manage it all.”
Injuries have hampered the sharpshooter throughout his college career, and upon arriving in Lexington, he sat out some of Kentucky’s early workouts and practices to manage his workload.
Brea has since returned to action and made progress in his recovery.
“A big part of why I backed out of the draft and everything and didn’t do a lot of my workouts was because I just wanted to make sure that I was completely healthy going into this new year,” Brea said. “It was kind of something that me and my agent talked about after the season, I wasn’t feeling too great. The conversations with my agent and my family were just like, ‘Let’s take a step back so we can take a couple of steps forward later on.’
We just took some time off to finally heal from my previous injury and I feel a lot better now, so I’m really glad that I did that.”
If healthy, Brea will have a chance to showcase why he may be the best scheme fit of any player in America on the biggest state in College Basketball on a nightly basis this winter.
