By SAM LANCE
Mark Pope is on absolute fire in the transfer portal since becoming Kentucky’s head coach, and he’s now landed his seventh portal addition and second commitment of the day.
First on Wednesday, the best 3-point shooter in the country last season announced he’s heading to Lexington in Dayton transfer guard Koby Brea.
Dreams to reality!!! Let’s go BBN
pic.twitter.com/4uWAAb4t03
— Koby Brea (@kobybrea) May 1, 2024
And now, Pope has landed West Virginia transfer point guard Kerr Kriisa. He announced the move via Instagram.
Kriisa, the 6-foot-3, 185-pound guard, averaged 11.0 points and 4.7 assists per game for the Mountaineers last season. Before West Virginia, the point guard played three years at Arizona. During Kriisa’s sophomore and junior year under Tommy Lloyd, he posted 65 starts and averaged 9.8 points and 4.9 assists per game.
As for Brea, the 6-foot-6, 205-pound guard from Washington Heights (NY), chose Kentucky over his other finalists Kansas, UConn, Duke and North Carolina. Brea led the nation in 3-point percentage last year, shooting 49.8% on 201 attempts from deep. The guard also averaged 11.1 points, 1.2 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game for Dayton in 2023-24.
“By the numbers, Koby Brea is the most efficient mid-to-high major player in college basketball in the last decade,” Pope said. “He’s the best returning shooter in college basketball next year. Koby is a dangerous, dangerous man who is a great human with an incredible family. He will be key in allowing us to play the style of basketball that we love the most. Koby and this group are going to take Big Blue Nation on an incredible ride.”
Pope and Kentucky now have seven total commits out of this portal cycle. That includes Brea and Kriisa, former Oklahoma State center Brandon Garrison, former Drexel forward Amari Williams, former Wake Forest small forward Andrew Carr, former San Diego St. guard Lamont Butler Jr. and finally former Oklahoma guard Otega Oweh.
Lots of new faces in Lexington next year.
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