Koby Brea load manages summer in hopes of full-strength campaign at Kentucky

No, your eyes weren’t deceiving you when Dayton transfer Koby Brea popped up on the sidelines away from live action in early Kentucky summer practice footage. If it appeared as though he was a holdout in workouts, sitting out while the rest of his teammates got their reps in and ran full-court, it’s because that’s exactly what happened.

That was the plan all along, a joint decision after talking with those closest to the fifth-year senior at the conclusion of his final year as a Flyer. It’s why he was a limited participant in draft workouts and withdrew relatively quickly, despite the public announcement not coming until the deadline. It’s also why he’s taken things slowly since arriving in Lexington.

After dealing with a number of injuries up to this point in his career, he wanted to ensure his first and last season at Kentucky came with no avoidable hiccups.

“A big part of why I backed out of the draft and didn’t do a lot of my workouts was I just wanted to make sure that I was completely healthy going into this new year. It’s just kind of something that me and my agent talked about,” Brea said Tuesday. “After the season, I wasn’t feeling too great, so after some conversations with my agent and my family, we were just like, ‘No, let’s take a step back so we can take a couple of steps forward later on.’

“We just took some time off to finally heal from my previous injury and I feel a lot better now. I’m really glad that I did.”

It was a decision that’s been three offseasons in the making, a calculated approach after some trial-and-error in back-to-back summers at Dayton. He opted against surgery going into his junior season while fighting stress fractures in both legs. Then after a year of lingering pain, Brea went through with a double surgery to put metal rods in both legs the following offseason.

That put him in a wheelchair, then a walker and crutches, keeping him out essentially the entire summer and preseason before returning to action two weeks before his senior campaign.

“I literally came back for my first workout two weeks before the season,” Brea said. “I only had two weeks to really get some work, get my body feeling right, to a place where I could actually play. Once the games started rolling, it kind of gets a little crazy, but I was able to manage it all.”

That approach worked, paving the path for the 6-7 guard to become “the most efficient mid-to-high major player in college basketball in the last decade,” as Mark Pope puts it. He went on to knock down 49.8 percent of his threes on 6.1 attempts per contest — a coin-flip specialist on high volume.

Now it’s about building on that production and staying healthy, those two things going hand in hand ahead of his one-and-done season at Kentucky. If that means sitting out a couple of weeks to open the summer, so be it.

“That’s part of the reason I took the time off now, just to finally — I haven’t really had a true offseason to finally recover from that, be able to move forward and not have to worry about that anymore,” he told KSR. “I just feel like it’s a big plus for me and for my teammates as well. I don’t want them to have to be like, ‘Oh man, Koby might not play this game’ or ‘He may not practice with us today.’ So I just wanted to get that out of the way and move forward.”

That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been hard watching from the sidelines, knowing he can contribute while wanting to build on-court chemistry with his teammates. The Wildcats are having a blast learning the offense and figuring each other out, and he obviously wants to be a part of that fun. And now he is, finally full-go after missing the first month or so.

In that time off, though, he did his best to make an impact however he could without actually participating. That’s where being a super senior comes in handy, stepping up as a leader as Mark Pope looks to put these puzzle pieces together ahead of the winter.

“It definitely sucks at first not being out there. I was watching practice every single day and I’m just like, ‘Man, I want to be out there so bad, it just looks so fun,'” Brea said. “But it’s part of the process, you’ve got to be patient during those times and just try to learn anything you can, try to engage with your teammates. Just keep learning. Even though you’re not on the court physically, there are still other things you can do as a captain and as a leader, just helping out other guys.

“I’m just glad to finally be able to be on the court and do what I love.”

He’s also happy to finally ease the nerves of antsy fans who obsessed over his health status to start the summer — yes, he noticed, in case you were curious. As Big Blue Nation dissected each frame of the early practice footage begging for injury answers, he knew he’d eventually have good news to share.

That time is now, fortunately for us.

“I did see a little of that [laughs],” he told KSR. “It just goes to show what kind of fans we have, they’re really invested in us and want to know every single little thing. I kind of love that, I’m not gonna lie.

“I like that our fans are really engaged and want to know more about us and the program because later on, we’ll be representing them and putting on for them. I’m glad it’s like that.”