Apr. 20—A Dayton Flyers fan saw the scoring numbers new UD recruit Travis Perry, a transfer who played last season at the University of Mississippi and his freshman season at the University of Kentucky, posted in high school (5,481 points) and wondered how that total was even mathematically possible.
Perry, a 6-foot-2 guard from Eddyville, Kentucky, committed to Dayton on Thursday, April 16. He announced his decision two hours before another transfer, 6-8 forward Jalen Haynes, of the Cincinnati Bearcats, picked the Flyers, and two days before Dayton landed commitments from Murray State guard Tristian Ford and Marquette guard Zaide Lowery.
One of the things that stands out in the Perry biography is his high school points total. He set the all-time scoring record in Kentucky for Lyon County High School, where his dad Ryan was the head coach.
The team won the state championship, the first in school history, when Perry was a senior in 2024. That's a bigger deal in Kentucky than some states because there's only one division. Lyon County beat Harlan 67-58 in the final game thanks in part to 27 points from Perry.
"It's so humbling," Perry told reporters after that game. "This is kind of a storybook ending. Get to play the last game for my dad, the last game with these guys that I've played with since I could walk. We get to end with a state championship. There's only one in the state of Kentucky. We got to be that one this year."
So how did Perry hit that big number? He started playing varsity basketball in seventh grade. He appeared in 201 games in six seasons.
Perry averaged 20.6 points in his first season, 26.6 points in eighth grade, 27.3 as a freshman, 27.5 as a sophomore, 32.2 points as a junior and 32.2 points as a senior.
Kelly "King" Coleman, of Wayland High School, set the previous record of 4,337 points from 1953-56. Perry passed that mark as a junior in March 2023 in a 61-46 victory against Newport in the Sweet 16 of the state tournament at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.
"It's never been about the scoring record," Perry said then. "It's been about going out and playing basketball. Scoring is fun, but winning games is a lot more fun. That's the thing I'm most proud of today. I'm proud of the way we fought (and) proud of the way we stepped up on the big stage. It was just fine with the way it happened and it's something I'm very thankful for."
Ryan Perry served as Lyon County head coach for the last five seasons of his son's high school career. He took over the program in 2019 before Travis started eighth grade. He previously coached his son's AAU team, the West Kentucky Wildcats. Watching his son set the record was "super special," Ryan said in 2023.
"The thing I'm most proud of today," Ryan said, "is the way we fought (and) I'm proud of the way we stepped up on the big stage. It was just fine with the way it happened, and it's something I'm very thankful for."
At the college level, Perry has yet to show the same scoring ability. He averaged 2.7 points as a freshman at Kentucky and 5.3 points last season at Ole Miss. He topped 20 points once in two seasons, scoring 21 against North Carolina State in December 2025.
At Kentucky, Perry played limited minutes (9.5 per game). John Calipari recruited him, but Perry played his freshman season for Mark Pope when Calipari left for Arkansas. Pope did not want Perry to transfer in the spring of 2025.
"I would never want to put words in his mouth but I think he was just not feeling super confident about the path for him here at Kentucky being exactly what he wanted to get out of the game of basketball," Pope told Kentucky Sports Radio then. "I couldn't have disagreed with him more on that, but at the end of the day, we're all just making our best guess but he's going to go to Ole Miss and have a great career there. I just know being a Kentucky basketball player is so much bigger than being a basketball player. And it's my job to help our guys see that and understand it and feel it. Sometimes as old people, it's so much easier for us to see 10 and 20 and 30 years down the road than it is for young guys."
At Ole Miss, Perry played a bigger role (16.5 minutes per game) but still a much smaller role than he'll be expected to play at Dayton. Dayton may need Perry to play point guard. The coaches will hope he can continue to show improvement with his 3-point shot. He shot 32.1% (18 of 56) as a freshman and 35.3% (48 of 136) as a sophomore.
"He's the best shooter on our team," Ole Miss coach Chris Beard told the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook before the season. "But he's so much more than that. He can impact the defensive end with his intelligence and competitiveness, and he can play point guard or off the ball. We're happy to have him here."