4-Point Play: Koby Brea, Jeremiah Fears and the Champions Charity Game

Who will be on the floor for the Kentucky Wildcats? Who won’t be? And what five-star guard loves Mark Pope, but doesn’t love campus in Lexington? How about some updates on La Familia ahead of The Basketball Tournament?

That’s what 4-Point Play is for, coming right up for your afternoon reading pleasure.

We have a Koby Brea sighting!

We’ve been hanging on to every second of practice footage possible since summer workouts began for the Cats in Lexington back on June 17. What started as big-picture instruction to lay the foundation of the team’s identity has blossomed into full-court five-on-five scrimmaging, a preview of what’s to come later this fall.

One player noticeably absent from the quick-hitter clips, at least on the court? Dayton transfer Koby Brea, often shown on the sideline standing next to the walk-ons while the rest of the team practices. He’s typically seen in his full uniform and has set a few screens in the footage we’ve seen, but we haven’t gotten to see much of his smooth shooting stroke since he arrived on campus — until now.

Kentucky released a video of Brea knocking down threes at the Joe Craft Center on Wednesday with the caption “Let it rip.”

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KSR has learned that Brea is dealing with a lingering minor issue dating back to his time at Dayton and is being taken along slowly this summer to get him back to full strength ahead of the regular season.

“He’s good,” one source said.

Brea had rods inserted in both tibias back in April 2023, but played in all 33 games for the Flyers as a senior before transferring to Kentucky for his fifth and final season of eligibility.

Now he’s ready to let it rip as a Wildcat.

Do not expect Jeremiah Fears to take the 13th scholarship

Mark Pope has one scholarship remaining going into his debut season at Kentucky, a spot he still says will be used, likely to close out the summer.

“We’re still kind of floating with it and we’ll see. We’ll spend a ton of time this summer on the road where it’s legal, including some international things,” Pope told KSR back in June. “There are always unique things that happen there late. There are also always some interesting things that happen late these days. We’ll kind of play it by ear.”

Could top-30 recruit and reclass candidate Jeremiah Fears be a possibility? Well, not likely.

Shortly after decommitting from Illinois, the four-star guard announced he had received a call from Kentucky, sources telling KSR that Fears grew up a fan of the Wildcats and wanted to hear more from the program. From there, though, talks died down between the two sides once it became clear the Joliet, Illinois native was looking for an expanded role right away — something UK isn’t in a position to offer nearly a month into practice.

On3’s Joe Tipton doubled down on that expectation Wednesday, writing in an intel piece that he “(does) not believe the Wildcats will make a strong push at this time.”

Darryn Peterson says UK’s campus “wasn’t all that great,” but loves the basketball facilities

We’ve got good news and bad news for you, folks. I’ll give you the bad news first: a top-five recruit in 2025 hates the construction on Kentucky’s campus as much as you do — you have to wear a hard hat just to get to the Joe Craft Center. And maybe he’s just not a huge fan of the traffic or how things are spaced out.

“The campus wasn’t all that great,” five-star guard Darryn Peterson told On3’s Jamie Shaw.

The good news? He likes just about everything else Kentucky has to offer, even with Pope taking over for Coach Cal — who has been recruiting Peterson since grade school.

“The facilities and where the gym was at was great. They got everything,” he said. “I feel like I can go there and get better, and that is the main thing. Even if Cal isn’t there, Kentucky is still Kentucky. Coach (Mark) Pope is still a great coach.”

We agree with all of that — even the campus part, for now. Let’s see what he thinks about it all when (if) construction ever wraps up around there, hopefully by the time he’s ready to head to school. Pope and the Cats would certainly love to have him.

A star-studded Champions Charity Game on July 13

Have plans Saturday night? Cancel them. Lexington is the place to be with the Champions Charity Game taking place from 6-8 p.m. ET at Tates Creek High School.

It’s a preview event ahead of La Familia’s debut in The Basketball Tournament next week, many of the players on that squad set to participate, along with a few other friendly faces you know and love from their time at Kentucky.

Among them? KSR has learned the current guest list includes Aaron Harrison, Andrew Harrison, Darius Miller, Kellan Grady, Julius Mays, James Young, Nate Sestina, Perry Stevenson, Daniel Orton, Jon Hood, Jarrod Polson, Twany Beckham, Sam Malone, Brennan Canada and Tod Lanter.

And if Willie Cauley-Stein can get his flights situated, he’ll be suiting up in the exhibition battle, as well.

It’s an awesome list of attendees with proceeds going to charity. Make sure you buy tickets before they’re all gone right HERE.

We’ll see you there, BBN.