By LARRY VAUGHT
Koby Brea was considered the best 3-point shooter in the transfer portal when he picked Kentucky over Duke, Kansas, Connecticut and North Carolina. He was a two-time Atlantic 10 Sixth Man of the Year at Dayton and had 33 games in his career with three or more 3’s. He was also a career 43.4 percent shooter from 3.
Those numbers are why Kentucky coach Mark Pope considered him the “perfect 3 man” for the offense he wanted to run and called him a “beautiful piece” to add. It also helped that Brea said he had “always dreamt about coming to Kentucky” to play.
However, Brea wants to show that he is more than just a shooter on a team loaded with shooters.
“I also want to show that I can play defense and do other things besides just shoot,” Brea said.
He had an impressive start in the exhibition win over Kentucky Wesleyan as he scored 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting overall and 3-for-5 from 3 in 19 minutes. He also had two assists, one steal and one rebound.
Just like he did at Dayton, he came off the bench in the exhibition game but that is no problem for him.
“I am able to accept a role. Everybody wants to be a starter but that is not what my role has been. I am willing to bring a spark off the bench and am more than willing to do that,” Brea said.
“I think everybody does a good job, taking what they are given, and trying to do the best with what they got. I feel like everybody did a great job accepting their role and trying to be the best at their role. I feel like we did a good job out there. Everybody meshed really well—which I’m not surprised about because I have seen it in practice—but to see it against outside competition was really good.”
While he wants to show he can do more than shoot, do not doubt his confidence in his shot-making ability.
“It is just about being ready and waiting your turn and understanding when you are in the game the coaches still need somebody to knock down shots and that is something I have always done,” the Dayton transfer said. “Coach has made it clear he wants us to shoot. Probably the first thing he told me when he reached out was that I would be shooting a lot of 3’s. He wants his team to shoot the most 3’s in the country and that is the perfect system for me.”
He also quickly learned it is the perfect system for freshman Travis Perry, Kentucky’s all-time high school scoring leader.
“It’s just incredible how every day he continues to show how great of a shooter, how efficient he is. He puts in the work. I feel like the sky’s the limit for him,’ Brea said. “The biggest challenge for players is to be consistent, to be able to do it every single day and he’s one of those guys that has been able to do it every single day.
“Once you see it so many times, you know this isn’t luck but it is actually he’s the real deal. He proves it every single day. It’s fun playing with him.”
Former Kentucky All-American Jack Givens, the analyst for the UK Radio Network, likes what he has seen from Brea.
“It’s easy to say he can shoot but shooters must have confidence and the confidence he plays with shines through,” Givens said. “There will be nights where he will miss shots but he plays with so much confidence.
“He needs to figure out what else he can be good at and show his teammates and scouts he is not just a shooter. I would tell him to look at Antonio Reeves and the jump he made from his junior year to senior year. By the time he left here he was a scorer in addition to a shooter.”
Brea doesn’t think it will be hard to figure out how to excel in Pope’s offense.
“It’s pretty easy when the other guys on the team can do everything that you can do, too,” Brea said. “I think we just have a lot of options, a lot of weapons, and everybody sticks to their strengths, plays together and does what they do well.”
After going 0-4 in SEC games at Kroger Field after last week’s loss to Auburn and dropping to 3-5 on the season, how does Kentucky coach Mark Stoops keep the morale of his team from hitting rock bottom going into Saturday’s game at Tennessee?
“Again, it’s like that every week. It’s just brutal. It’s hard. It’s tough. It’s a tough league. We have to man up. Bottom line. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Our players know that and they got to get back to work and we have to do a better job,” Stoops said after the Auburn loss.
“I told them in there, it’s on me. And I’ve got to do a better job. We’ve got to get them in a better position to play better. We just all have to do a better job. Obviously, it starts with me and I know people get tired of hearing that but we are not playing winning football right now.”
Cornerback JQ Hardaway had seven solo tackles and an interception against Auburn. He knows there is only one way to bounce back.
“Look at yourself in the mirror. Find out what you can do better, because everybody can do something. Don’t just try to point your finger to the next guy,” Hardaway said. “I’m saying just stand, stay in a hole. It is rowdy, you know, not going our way, but if we all just continue to go to work and believe in each other I believe positive things will come.”
Kentucky has a definite international blend on its women’s basketball team led by All-American guard Georgia Amoore of Australia along with Clara Silva of Portugal, Tanah Becker of Canada, Dominka Paurova of the Czech Republic and Amelia Hassett of Australia.
“I definitely see us sharing the ball a lot because of our backgrounds,” Hassett, a junior forward, said. “Obviously, we have girls on our team who can just get down the court and just score. But yeah, I definitely think that our playing style is a lot about working together.”
Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks believes the increased popularity of women’s basketball in recent years has made the sport more attractive for international players to come to the United States for higher opportunities.
“It worked extremely well for us at the Virginia Tech level. Obviously Georgia was someone we had. We had a kid, Matilda Ekh, last year who was a tremendous player. It really fits our system. We have a number this year. They fit our system, the way we play,” Brooks said. “The way we play is similar to international basketball. They come in and fit in very seamlessly.
“We won’t go totally to it, but it will be a good mixture. It’s something that we definitely scour the world to see if there are great players that will fit our system. If it is, we definitely welcome it.
Amoore believes European players in general do not feel as entitled because they did not grow up with as many opportunities as most American players had.
“I’d say it helps us obviously. We kind of get in there and do not get greedy. We are just kind of being humble and do our thing and play your role to the best of your ability and look for ways to just help the team win.
“We are serious on the court but Georgia having that joy she does helps us all. You can see how much she loves basketball and it makes you realize you can also play that hard while you are still having fun.”
Hassett spent two years at Eastern Florida State College where she was a junior college All-American but knows coach Kenny Brooks is expecting a lot from her.
“That transition to Division I obviously has been a little bit harder but having the support around me with the coaching staff has been very helpful and I really like what we have here,” Hassett said.
The more he gets to play and develop, the more Kentucky associate coach Vince Marrow believes freshman tight end Willie Rodriguez will be a “monster” for the Wildcats.
“Put him in situations where the game is on the line and that kid does not flinch,” Marrow said. “He’s got great parents. They are just a blue collar family with a great work ethic and that’s why he just goes about his work daily.
“He’s a big, strong, fast guy. I am just looking forward to getting him more involved in the offense as he keeps learning. Remember, he didn’t get here in January like most freshmen.”
Marrow calls Rodriguez a “true team player” every day.
“He supports everybody on the team. Everybody on the team loves him,” Marrow said. “I can’t wait to see him keep going forward and turning into the monster on the field I know he is going to be.”
Ansley Almonor started a combined 65 games the previous two seasons at Fairleigh Dickinson, scored over 1,000 points in his three-year career and was a first-team all-conference player last season.
However, the 6-7 forward admits he knows many believe he will struggle to be a valuable contributor at Kentucky this season.
“I was not heavily recruited but I knew I had more talent than people realized. I also knew how hard I worked,” he said, “I always believed I could play at a school like Kentucky and then the next level (NBA) because of my work ethic.
“I know people doubt me but that just motivates me. I want to prove I can succeed and help Kentucky win. For my whole life I have loved proving people wrong and showing I can do more than people expect.”
Almoner’s toughness/determination is part of his New York upbringing. At UK’s Media Day he joked it was “eat or be eaten” in the New York culture.
“It’s tough every day and made me who I am. It’s a cut-throat environment no matter what you are doing,” Almonor said. “I played in a lot of park leagues and with different AAU teams. You learned that you had to be tough to have any chance to succeed. No one was going to baby you.”
Almonor averaged 16.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 32 minutes per game last year when he shot 39 percent from 3-point range.
Kentucky’s offensive line is going to be looking for a lot of new players next season due to the age of the offensive line starters this season.
Offensive line coach likes what two young players — redshirt freshman tackle Malachi Wood and true freshman guard Ana Selm — have been doing.
“I can tell you this, Abe is ready. I am excited about his progress. He just got here in January. I am really encouraged by him. He lifts weights four days a week, he works hard, he’s a student of the game. He does the things he needs to do to be a good player,” Wolford said. “I hope to get him reps soon but we want to make sure we save that extra year for him.”
Wood weighed 280 when he got to UK. He’s now at 315 pounds and got his first significant playing time at Florida before making his first collegiate start last week in the loss to Auburn. Wolford said his experience has taught him it normally takes at least two years for a high school offensive lineman to be ready to play in the SEC where the majority of defensive linemen are future NFL draft picks.
Wood said it was a “dream come true being a hometown kid (from Richmond)” to play against Florida.
He said he’s been learning from older offensive linemen by watching what they do in the film room and practice field. Adding weight has also been a huge benefit once he learned how to add good weight.
“We have bought into the process. You just can’t go in on Saturday and go 100 percent. You have to do the work during the week, too,” Wood said.
Quote of the Week: “I just wanted to remind Kentucky and the BBN.I haven’t forgotten what I said! One day I will be back! I’ve never been silent about my dream of being the head football coach at UK. I have some unfinished business to handle and then I’ll be back for my kingdom,” former UK/NFL linebacker Wesley Woodyard on his dream of coaching at Kentucky.
Quote of the Week 2: “She is probably one of the funniest people you’d ever meet on and off the court. She has a great personality, just a great person all around. She always will put her teammates in the best situations,” Kentucky redshirt freshman Gabby Brooks, the daughter of UK coach Kenny Brooks, on senior all-American guard Georgia Amoore.
Quote of the Week 3: “They know how stuff works around here. People who work in the facilities here, they know everybody’s names who works here. They’ve really helped us with some little comparisons about how it’s been here. They’ve been a good help for us,” Kentucky guard Kerr Kriisa on how walk-ons Grant Darbyshire and Walker Horn help the team.