Dayton transfer guard Koby Brea commits to Kentucky

ZGeogheganKSR

Mark Pope sacrificing hours of good sleep is quickly beginning to pay off. The new head coach of Kentucky men’s basketball has now added the eighth piece to his debut roster for the 2024-25 season.

Dayton transfer Koby Brea announced his commitment to the Wildcats on Wednesday. The 6-foot-6 guard arrived in Lexington for an official visit on Monday and didn’t waste any time pledging to Kentucky. He chose UK over the likes of UConn, Duke, Kansas, and North Carolina.

“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 told ESPN’s Jonathan Givony. “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.”

Brea has spent all four of his college seasons at Dayton and will have one year of eligibility remaining. This past season as the A-10 Sixth Man of the Year, he averaged 11.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 29.1 minutes per outing for the Flyers. He started four of 33 games played, shooting 51.2 percent from the field, an impressive 49.8 percent from deep (on 6.1 attempts per contest), and 87.5 percent from the line.

Unranked out of high school, Brea is considered a Top 30 prospect to enter the transfer portal this offseason by On3, checking in at No. 41.

Brea, a native of New York, arrived at Dayton ahead of the 2020-21 season but missed most of the preseason and all of the Flyers’ non-conference slate due to injury. He appeared in just 16 games as a freshman before taking a leap as a sophomore. Brea averaged 8.1 points and 2.9 rebounds in ’21-22 on shooting splits of 43.6/42.3/62.1. He was tabbed A-10 Sixth Man of the Year for the first time.

As a junior in ’22-23, he sat out a handful of games due to injury/illness but still played in 28 games while making 10 starts. His numbers dipped to average 6.8 points and 3.3 rebounds on splits of 36.3/37/100 before rebounding in a major way this past season. Brea even helped lead Dayton to the 2024 NCAA Tournament, including a first-round victory against Nevada.

Brea is among the nation’s top outside shooters. 201 of his 246 shots in ’23-24 were from long-range. He made 100 of them. His 72.2 true shooting percentage ranked second in the country last season (Reed Sheppard was sixth, for reference), per KenPom. He attempted just 16 free throws throughout the entire season but still made nearly 58 percent of his two-point attempts.

Kentucky and Coach Pope got another good one in Koby Brea.