Report: Koby Brea withdraws from NBA Draft, will play for Kentucky

Shooting guard Koby Brea has withdrawn his name from the 2024 NBA Draft, according to a report by Jon Rothstein.

Brea, who played for the Dayton Flyers in 2023, is also going to be transferring to the Kentucky Wildcats. There, he will hope to play a key role for the program in its first season under new head coach Mark Pope.

A 6-foot-6 guard who played the last four seasons for Dayton, Koby Brea is only going to have one season of eligibility at Kentucky. He was the sixth-man of the year in the Atlantic-10 this past season, while averaging 11.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 29.1 minutes per game. On top of that, he shot shooting 51.2 percent from the field, 49.8 percent from three-point range, and 87.5 percent from the free-throw line.

It was a good year for Dayton, largely because of the play of Brea. For the year, the Flyers went 25-8 and 14-4 in A-10 play. That was good enough for Dayton to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament, despite not winning their conference tournament. There, the Flyers made it to the second round.

Following the season Koby Brea both declared for the NBA Draft and entered the Transfer Portal. It was in the portal that he found plenty of attention and ended up committing to Kentucky in early May. He also ended up making the decision to pull his name out of the portal.

“Growing up, I was told I was dreaming too big whenever I’d say my dream was to play for the University of Kentucky,” Brea said after committing to the Wildcats. “I feel like God does everything for a reason, and He has put me in a position where I’m able to play for my dream school in my last year of college, while playing for something bigger than myself.”

Among the schools that Koby Brea chose Kentucky over were Duke and UConn.

Kentucky and the Transfer Portal

Thanks to the coaching change, going from John Calipari to Mark Pope, it’s not a surprise to find that Kentucky has been very active in the Transfer Portal this offseason.

The Wildcats are 45th in the On3 2024 College Basketball Team Transfer Portal Rankings for the 2024 cycle. Within that transfer class, seven different players have transferred out of the school, including several big names. Meanwhile, Pope has brought in eight new transfers to the program.

Among the key names that Kentucky has added are Koby Brea, Brandon Garrison, and Otega Oweh.