OXFORD — Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard wants winners in his program. Former Kentucky guard Travis Perry fits that mold.
Perry, a 6-foot-1, 190 pound sophomore, is the leading scorer in Kentucky prep history and ranks in the top-10 nationally with 5,481 career points. Perry averaged 32.2 points per game as a senior at Lyon County, helping the Lions to a 36-3 record and state title. He was a four-star recruit in the 2024 class and top-100 recruit nationally, per 247Sports. Perry started four games and averaged 2.7 points per game overall as a true freshman at Kentucky and was rated a four-star transfer. The Wildcats advanced to the Sweet 16 last season.
While it was admittedly difficult to leave his home state and one of the nation’s marquee programs, Perry wanted to do what was best for him and his family.
“It’s definitely a difficult decision, I think, for anyone, really, to get in the portal. But definitely, the situation is difficult,” Perry said Tuesday as the Rebels begin their summer workouts. “But I just felt like at the end of the day, you have to make the best decision for yourself and your basketball career. … You only get so much time to play basketball.”
Perry joins an Ole Miss squad coming off its second-ever Sweet 16 appearance and is undergoing a major roster makeover. Gone are guards Sean Pedulla, Matthew Murrell, Jaylen Murray, Dre Davis and Davon Barnes as well as forwards Jaemyn Brakefield and Mikeal Brown-Jones. The Rebels’ leading returner is forward Malik Dia, who averaged 10.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in his first season at Ole Miss following his transfer from Belmont.
Ole Miss added six four-star transfers in the offseason, according to 247Sports, and three four-star prep players in forwards Niko Bundalo and Tylis Jordan and guard Patton Pinkins.
While Beard knows talent is always going to be the priority when it comes to player evaluation, the rest is dealer’s choice as to what a given coaching staff values. Beard values players who have won at various levels. Perry has been part of winning teams at both the high school and college levels, as have the majority of the new players on the Rebels’ roster.
“We all want everything, but at some point, what’s important to you? And it’s really no different than the players. … Winning is very important,” Beard said. “ … There’s no substitute for this. From time to time you take that player that maybe hasn’t experienced winning, but that’s a challenge. There’s something about winning. There’s six minutes left in a game and it’s tied up. Some guys think ‘We’re going to win this game’ and some guys think ‘I’ve never won a game like this before.’”
As far as his game is concerned, Perry has worked on becoming more than someone known solely as a shooter. While Beard knows shooting is Perry’s calling card, the two “share a vision for his game” that goes beyond scoring.
“I like to be known as a guy that can shoot the ball very well. But there’s not many guys that just are straight shooters that have a successful career,” Perry said. “So, that’s something that I’ve really tried to work on this summer — even going back to my high school days — just trying to be more than a shooter, more than just a scorer. And, really, the identity I want is somebody that impacts winning at the highest level.”
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