Isaiah Evans is welcome to kentucky basketball

When Lamont Butler went down with his ankle injury, many fans thought this would be the time to see true freshman and local high school hero Travis Perry. Yet, it didn’t happen. Then Kerr Kriisa went down during the Gonzaga game and had to be removed. Surely, the only other point guard on the roster would come into the game? Yet, it still didn’t happen. He only had two total minutes versus Gonzaga.

It started to feel like maybe Kentucky head coach Mark Pope knew something that the fans didn’t, that Travis Perry wasn’t ready. When both Butler and Kriisa also couldn’t go for the Colgate game, it was thought that Perry would get an extended run, especially with a bad Colgate team. He didn’t get the start but did get to come in when the Wildcats were up 12-0.

He played for a good chunk of time until Colgate began to make a comeback. The Raiders went on a big run, while Kentucky went cold when the lineup had two true freshmen in it: Chandler and Perry. Pope elected to get his starters back in to stop the bleeding. The energy was a bit off the rest of the night.

In that run, we got to see a good amount of Perry, and it became clear why Pope was holding him out of games and electing to use non-point guards like Jaxson Robinson at the point. Perry simply isn’t ready, and here’s why:

Game Speed vs. Practice Speed
Kentucky fans have seen him in shoot-arounds, practice clips, and limited minutes against low-level teams. He can shoot the lights out, and yet when he came into the Colgate game, he was cold and played with a weird hustle. He went 0-4 from the field and 0-3 from three.

He constantly worked to catch up to plays, and what we often see in true freshmen who aren’t ready and walk-ons is that they make up for their “being behind” with hustle. He certainly was trying to get to the right spots and trying to get around screens. Yet, the game sped him up. He was playing faster than he was comfortable. He will have to keep getting faster reps in practice and more games like this to get him up to game speed.

Force vs. Flow
He wanted so badly to make a play. He wanted to have Rupp arena explode for a play he either assisted in or made himself. He was making “flashy” passes when it was unnecessary. He was pushing his shots instead of letting it feel fluid. This is what was missing from his game compared to what we saw in his three-point contest win at Big Blue Madness. He was forcing his body to shoot the shot instead of letting it flow. He looked smooth at Big Blue Madness with his shots, but against Colgate, his shots looked forced.

Fans know he has game, and Pope keeps saying he does, but he just isn’t ready yet, and that’s okay. He needs to get up to speed and let the game flow. Instead of forcing the game, he must let it happen more naturally. This will be the next step in his development.