Travis Perry hit four threes in Ole Miss' double-digit exhibition win over No. 2 Houston

As Kentucky prepares for its exhibition debut this week vs. No. 1 Purdue, a former Wildcat just did the same for his new team, Ole Miss taking on No. 2 Houston. Travis Perry, the state’s all-time leading scorer in high school who spent his freshman campaign in Lexington before making the move to Oxford under Chris Beard this offseason, was a key contributor in the Rebels’ double-digit victory against the Cougars.

Now, it was a secret scrimmage — not like the televised battle we’ll see on Friday between the Cats and Boilermakers — so stats and highlights are hard to come by and general info is severely limited. It’s all word of mouth, so take it for what it’s worth from folks with eyes and ears around the Ole Miss program.

That being said, Travis Perry apparently went 4-5 from three in the team’s 70-56 victory and was among the game’s top standouts against the national runner-up at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.

“They rode a hot hand from Travis Perry,” Chase Parham of 247Sports said. “I’ve seen all these things on Twitter going, ‘Oh God, he had 40!’ No he didn’t, but he did go 4-5 from three, so he was very effective from the three-point line.”

Perry then followed that up with a “very strong” showing in the three-point contest at Square Jam — the Rebels’ version of Big Blue Madness — according to Jake Thompson of On3’s OMSpirit.

“Travis Perry has a very nice shot,” he wrote. “… He will be a bucket machine if he gets into a rhythm.”

The former Wildcat averaged 2.7 points in 9.7 minutes per game across 31 outings in the blue and white, including four starts during SEC play. He then entered the portal looking for a bigger opportunity in year two, one Chris Beard was happy to give him in Oxford after pushing for him back in high school and making sure he was first in line to recruit him when Perry decided to transfer.

Beard raved about the Lyon County product at SEC Media Day in Birmingham last week, saying he expected — and needed — Perry to have the best year of his basketball career as a Rebel.

“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. “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.”

His teammates doubled down on that confidence, saying Ole Miss will live and die by Travis Perry in 2025-26.

“Travis has been portrayed as a three-point shooter. And I think here at Ole Miss we’ve actually developed his game a lot,” standout 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,” 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.”

His impact is already on full display in Oxford.