Koby Brea is the best shooter in college basketball, but Mark Pope sees even more room for growth

Koby Brea is shooting a scorching 78.95% (15-19) from the three-point line this season, which ranks first in college basketball. Through four games, Brea has missed only four threes, which is ridiculous. It’s very early, but Brea is on pace to once again lead the nation in three-point field goal percentage and break Kentucky’s single-season record of 52.9%, set by Travis Ford in 1994 (minimum of 100 attempts).

Brea was a perfect 3-3 from beyond the arc in Tuesday night’s 97-68 win over Lipscomb, but that was just one part of an impressive all-around performance. He also had seven rebounds, bringing his season average to five per game, and played well on the defensive end. Combine that with some strong defensive plays vs. Duke and Pope said he underestimated Brea on that end of the floor.

“I thought he was great on the glass tonight,” Pope said after the game. “It was just seven rebounds, but it was challenged rebounds, physical rebounds, I was really proud of him for that. He ended up with some switched mismatches that he handled really well. I still think he’s got a huge amount of gas in his tank on the defensive end in isolation and handling guys one-on-one. 

“Actually, Koby is interesting because sometimes my eyes tricked me and at the end of the game he’s actually got a better defensive package than I thought I saw. With him, I always have to go back to the numbers and just check with my eyes right now as unlearning him as a defensive player.”

Brea’s sharpshooting steals the spotlight; however, Pope said he also sees Brea’s potential inside. He wants him to drive to the basket more often and be more physical in the paint to keep defenses honest.

“I also think he has a chance to be a terrific playmaker. He’s still learning to get off two feet. He had one opportunity where he shot fake, and drove baseline right in front of our bench where he could see the bottom kind of was there and he bailed out of it. I actually had the confidence in him, I would love him to carve out space, get his shoulder into the hips that he just turned, carve out some space, and get all the way to two feet, because he’s really good in there.

“I would like him to grow in that sense about being able to probe more downhill, more confidently, more off-the-wall creating space. So, I would like him to continue to be a really dangerous, huge energy cutter. He probably doesn’t manufacture as much as he can yet.  He’s such a lethal shooter and teams are going to overplay, and overplay, and overplay more and he can really kill teams as a cutter and that’s a place in this game where he’s growing. So, there is a lot of growth for him.”

“I’m just trying to show different parts of my game, whether it’s playmaking or rebounding,” Brea said on Tuesday night. “Just not trying to be one-dimensional.”

While he masters that, he can continue to burn teams from the outside like he’s done through the first four games. Pope particularly loves it when he busts zones like he did in the second half vs. Lipscomb.

“He’s putting together a pretty fun product, right?” Pope said. “Lipscomb came in having played 34 possessions of zone at a 0.511 points for possession. That’s ridiculous, guys, that’s so good. And so they kind of saved it and went to it in the second half and it was like, you’ve got Koby Brea running around shooting 3s, it’s like we can’t do that. I think we were almost two points per possession, over two points per possession against the zone.”

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Brea said when asked if his eyes light up when he sees a zone. “It’s kind of surprising to me when a team goes zone against us because I don’t think it makes too much sense. We have a lot of shooters here so whenever I see it, I think it’s a great opportunity for us to just light it up a little bit.”

Enjoy Steven Peake’s supercut of every Brea three-point attempt this season. As Pope would say, it really is a fun product.

Koby Brea is shooting 79% from deep through 4 games. Here are all 19 attempts from this season.

Most of them don't even graze the rim. pic.twitter.com/jkKyREAYM1

— Steven Peake (@StevenPeakeKSR) November 21, 2024