Chris Beard says Travis Perry needs 'to have the best year he's ever had' this season at Ole Miss

Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard has high expectations for former Kentucky guard Travis Perry this season.

After receiving more minutes than anticipated as a true freshman with the Wildcats in 2024-25, Perry elected to hop into the transfer portal during the offseason. Mark Pope had already planned to bring in a handful of talented freshmen and ended up coupling that with plenty of immediate impact transfer additions, not to mention his group of returners. A path to playing time this season would have admittedly been tough to see for Perry.

It didn’t take him long to find a new home in Oxford, though. Beard, who recruited Perry “literally a couple of days” after taking the head coaching job at Ole Miss in 2023, has plans to turn Perry into more than just a shooter. And if that happens as planned, the Lyon County product will play a massive role in the Rebels’ having a successful 2025-26.

“I’m on the record, I’ll never get tired of saying it, in my personal opinion, I can only speak for myself, Travis is more than a shooter,” Beard said Tuesday at SEC Media Days. “A shooter does not define what he can do on the court today and certainly what he will be able to do as he continues to grow as a player. Still a young sophomore in our league. We have a major impact role for Travis. We need him to have the best year he’s ever had playing basketball for our team to do what we all would like to do in Oxford.”

At Kentucky, a slew of injuries to guards ahead of Perry in the rotation forced him onto the floor. And to his credit, he did everything he could. The 5-foot-10 guard averaged 2.7 points in 9.7 minutes per outing across 31 games played last season, including four starts during SEC play. Nothing spectacular, but enough to have the Big Blue Nation curious about what he could turn into down the road.

Unfortunately, Kentucky fans will now have to watch that from afar. But Perry’s new teammates at Ole Miss have seen enough in the offseason to agree with Beard’s assessment.

“Travis has been portrayed as a three-point shooter. And I think here at Ole Miss we’ve actually developed his game a lot,” Ole Miss forward Malik Dia said. “He’s turned into a point guard. Really good decision-maker. Things aren’t easy when you’re playing in our offense or defense. So him learning and adjusting to that will be big-time for us, but I do agree with Coach Beard that he has to have a big year for us to be great.”

“(Perry) lives in the gym,” Ole Miss guard AJ Storr added. “Puts a thousand threes up a day probably. Most conditioned guy on our team... Just overall, he’s a good player for us and he’ll have a huge impact on this team.”

Perry is likely to fill in as the backup point guard for Ole Miss once the season opener hits. Traditionally, Beard-coached teams emphasize defense, an area Perry struggled with at times at UK due to his size. But if he can turn it around on that end of the floor, while also expanding his game offensively, a breakout campaign could very well be on the way for Perry.

Kentucky fans will see what that looks like first-hand when Perry and Ole Miss come to Lexington in January.

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