After Kentucky hired Mark Pope there were a lot of questions around his ability to land big recruits. Well Mark Pope answered the bell with this one as he out-battled UConn, Kansas, Duke, and UNC to land Koby Brea. The 6’6” wing adds elite shooting and is another transfer that comes from a winning program. We’ll take a look at how he fits and if you missed our other previews you can find them here:
Offensively
Shooting, shooting, shooting. Koby Brea is an absolute sniper. He shot 50% from three last year at Dayton (on 201 attempts!) and did it a plethora of ways. He’s deadly in catch and shoots, he’s deadly coming off screens, and he’s deadly off the bounce with contested pull-ups. Brea has an eFG% of 71% which is, frankly, outstanding. He’s an incredibly efficient player who leans into his strengths and thrives.
Outside of shooting Brea wasn’t really asked to do a whole lot more on the offensive end. I do think there is more than just shooting there if Brea was allowed to show it but we’ll see how Pope wants to use him. When you have a guy that shoots this efficiently it’s kind of crazy that he only has a 16% USG%, I know Dayton had a really good guard that they featured but I would expect Brea to be much more of a focal point for Pope.
Defensively
Brea has the typical 3 and D profile. His defense is better than you would think considering how much praise he gets for his offensive efficiency. Brea has a good frame at 6’6” and is fluid enough to stay in front of opposing players.
Brea is a very good team defender and is rarely a liability on that end of the floor. He will be taking a pretty big jump from the A-10 to the SEC but the fundamentals and IQ are there. He doesn’t create a bunch of chaos in terms of steals but he reads the game well. Kentucky has already signed several difference-makers on the defensive end so Brea should be able to slot in comfortably and not be a liability.
2024 Outlook
Brea is a huge piece. There is a reason that every single elite program and coach was chasing after him when he entered the portal. Mark Pope fighting off Hurley, Scheyer, and Self to get him is a huge win not just for this upcoming team but bodes well for the future. Brea is going to thrive in Pope’s system as a floor spacer but as he plays with more shooters I think we’ll see him show a more robust scoring arsenal. Kind of like we saw Reeves flourish when playing with multiple elite shooters this past year. Kentucky got a starter with an elite skill-set this week.
