[Cactus Jack]

It's interesting that you would use NKU as an example since I graduated from there when they were playing their best basketball. When Drew McDonald and the team were top of the Horizon League they drew some great crowds with a big atmosphere. But that's an aside lol. 

If Travis wants to be a glorified walk-on that gets the perks of being at UK, then that is available. If he wants to ever get to the level of an SEC level player, he needs to play regular minutes and not be buried on the end of the bench. I think Ansley Almonor is a good example off this year's team. He played 3 years at Fairleigh Dickinson perfecting his shooting ability so that he became an elite level corner specialist. That one skill set got him an opportunity to transfer to Kentucky and have some huge moments during the season.

I too have attended many NKU games.  I'm guessing I have never seen over 2,000 fans in the 9,400 seat arena for a Horizion League game.

I chose NKU and WKU as examples because they were two of the schools mentioned in other posts, I've been inside each of their gyms, and I've watched them in person.

I know NKU has seen better days than what they've seen recently, but wondering how much staying power they have now that they're a D1 program. Think it's going to by cyclic at best. It's also probably going to be really bad for them when Kentucky, Louisville, Xavier, and Cincinnati are doing well; same, just on a different level when it's WKU, EKU, and Bellarmine. I know they don't recruit head-to-head against the first list of schools, but I'd imagine it really hurts their home attendance if a top 10 Kentucky team is playing on TV that night or Cincinnati is hosting Kansas.

My go-to for programs like NKU trying to build is Central Florida's success in 2017-2019 while Florida, Florida State, and Miami weren't exactly setting the world on fire. Even then, it served as a good time for UCF to catch up and level up a conference, but keeping that momentum is a different story.

As for Perry, there's a huge difference in being an "SEC level player" and being one of Kentucky's top seven in minutes. His skill is that he's an elite shooter-- that's already there and it isn't going anywhere. He isn't a Lofton (an All-State WR who made things look easier than Perry in HS), Epps (Mr. Football), or Dominique Hawkins (had NFL teams showing up to his NBA workouts), and no amount of experience in a lower conference changes that. But Pope's teams put up a lot of points, which means taking a lot of shots, and he'd probably still get some minutes, especially in regular season games where defense is thrown out the window.

I can see it both ways on working in a program that has access to the best of the best when it comes to training, nutrition, and seeing great competition daily in practice, etc., versus getting tons of game reps from playing through mistakes and a major part of any game plan. For the former, Cameron Mills is probably the ceiling for an in-state kid that's physically not your prototypical SEC build and athleticism (he fits the "huge moments"). For the latter, it's probably a Patrick Sparks type if you use the same parameters.

Good for him to be in a position to make the choice between anything from a role at Kentucky, to one at Ole Miss or a Vanderbilt, to a really expanded role at a WKU or elsewhere-- it's not a bad position to be in, I just didn't think NKU would be on his radar due to proximity and fit.

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Perry isnt an elite D1 player, heck hes barely a D1 player.  Shouldnt have been on UK roster to begin with, but to appease the fan base Mr. Basketball must have a roster spot.  

This really proves that Kentucky high school basketball isnt as good as people in state think it is.

Disagree with the bolded. Perry is a D1 player. Kentucky high school basketball might not be as good as people in the state think it is, but that doesn't mean he couldn't be on the roster of almost any of the schools who finished in KenPom's 175-360 range by the end of the week if he really wanted to.

Most sane Kentucky fans realize that every Mr. Basketball isn't a good fit for UK's roster, but I saw no problems with him being on last year's Kentucky roster, especially at the time Pope had to make the decision.