Koby Brea and Kentucky broke out of a shooting slump and hit the 30 mark against Colgate
Five games into the season, Kentucky was on fire from outside with 12.6 made 3-pointers per game, the fourth-highest average in the country at the time. The hot-shooting Wildcats also became the first team in school history to make 10 or more 3s in the first five games, shooting 42.3% from long range.
Koby Brea pumped those numbers up with his insane start to 2024-25. Brea shot 74.1% in Kentucky’s first five games, making four 3-pointers per game.
Then something happened. Maybe it was Thanksgiving, maybe it was how teams guarded the perimeter, but something changed. The Wildcats went cold, and shooting numbers dropped. Kentucky played four consecutive games, shooting below 30% on fewer than 30 attempts per game, which is Pope’s magic number for shots.
Against Western Kentucky, Kentucky hit only eight 3s on 29 tries. Then shot 26.9% against Georgia State, 25.9% in a loss at Clemson, and 28% against Gonzaga. Brea went cold as the team did. He went 7-for-22 in that four-game span, a very modest 31.8 shooting percentage.
Brea on fire against Colgate
Brea snapped out of his slump against Colgate on Wednesday, leading the team in scoring with 17 points in his first career start in Lexington. He made all four of his 3-point tries in the first half–a perfect 4-for-4 at halftime–then added one more 3 on four attempts in the second half for a 62.5% clip for the game. The 5-for-8 night moved Brea up to second nationally on his climb back to the nation’s best shooting percentage, a spot he held earlier in the year. He’s at 56.1% for the year now.
[Koby Brea is the newest member of the 1,000-point club]
Kentucky shot better as a team against Colgate, too. The Wildcats not named Koby Brea were still cold in the first half (0-11) but found a rhythm in the second, including a game-changing run of four consecutive made 3-pointers by Jaxson Robinson (x2), Trent Noah and Otega Oweh.
Kentucky got above 30 in both shooting percentage and 3-point attempts in the win, making 10 of 31 for 32.3%
Kentucky’s 3-point shooting percentage by game
vs. Wright State: 45.8% (11-24)
vs. Bucknell: 36.1% (13-36)
vs. Duke: 40.0% (10-25)
vs. Lipscomb: 48.0% (12-25)
vs. Jackson State: 43.6% (17-39)
vs. Western Kentucky: 27.6% (8-29)
vs. Georgia State: 26.9% (7-26)
vs. Clemson: 25.9% (7-27)
vs. Gonzaga: 28.0% (7-25)
vs. Colgate: 32.3% (10-31)
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“It is a standard for us we would like to hold.”
Thirty 3-pointers are Kentucky’s target each game, although Mark Pope prefers even higher.
“It is just our goal marker,” Pope explained after the win over Colgate. “I wish we could get to 35. It is kind of a standard for us we would like to hold. We’d like to be there. Because the 30 3s, for us, we have to earn them, right? Really, what the 30 3s translates is we are getting unbelievable movement, we are really, really in attack mode, that we are really getting downhill and earning power plays, that we are playing off two feet, that we have a ton of motion away from the ball.”
Pope called the target a measure of how Kentucky is moving, cutting, and playing intentionally in looking for catch-and-shoot 3s. When Kentucky misses its 30 mark, it is usually because the Wildcats weren’t aggressive enough.
“In a sense, it’s really a measure of the energy of the game on the offensive side for us,” he added.
Pope admitted that he was frustrated by Kentucky’s shooting volume in the four-game span before the Wildcats’ second-half run against Colgate. Kentucky also lost one of its better 3-point shooters to a broken foot in that span of underperformance.
“Kerr (Krissa) has been one of the big catalysts for us,” said Pope. “Not only is our volume down for us but we lost one of our catalysts. We are going to rediscover ways to get back to that part of our game. But I was happy to get over 30.“
Hear more from Pope here. Or stay here for more highlights of Brea draining 3s.
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