Travis Perry certainly looks like a college freshman (mustache and all), but according to Mark Pope, he sure doesn’t act like one.

“I’ve said this a couple times, but the first day, Travis — I think Travis has never been fazed by anything in his life,” Pope said this week at Media Day. “I think he’s like a 75-year-old soul in an 18-year-old body.” 

Why a 75-year-old soul? Not because Perry (who is actually 19 years old, but we’ll let it slide) has an affinity for music from the 1960s or enjoys telling small children to get off his lawn, but because of how he presents himself on the basketball court. He acts like an experienced veteran despite having yet to play a single college basketball game. Nothing seems to get under his skin — not even a rough start to summer practice.

“He’s specially built that way,” Pope said of Perry. “And he came in and said, man, I can’t get a shot off. Right? And defensive assignments were really hard and his head was spinning defensively a little bit.

“Both guys (Perry and fellow in-state freshman Trent Noah) came in, the first couple days of practice, they were spinning around in circles. And both of them just put their head down and went to work and went to work and went to work. And they’re like sieves right now. They are learning so fast.”

For Perry (and most college freshmen), playing poorly was a relatively new experience. Perry started varsity high school basketball as a seventh greater. He’s scored more points in the history of the state than anyone else, capping off his high school career with a state championship. All he’s known for the last several years is that he was among the best talents in his age group.

That’s not exactly the case now.

But for anyone who knows about Perry and his tireless work ethic, it’s no shock to hear that he quickly turned it around. Remember when he was making regular offseason headlines for his excellent shooting skills? Pope said he’s never seen any player at any level make 100 straight free throws across three straight days of practice as Perry did.

Perry also comes from a family that requires a strong work ethic when it comes to the game of basketball. That’s what happens when your dad is your head coach for several years, just like Ryan Perry was with Travis at Lyon County. In fact, he sees shades of his dad in Pope. That relationship has helped him improve at his own game over the last few months.

“Coach Pope is honestly such a great person. He’s like a dad to all of us. That’s something that’s really important to us,” Perry said. “It’s been great, Coach Pope has a great system, has a great way of doing things, very supportive, and instills just as much confidence in me as my dad did when I was playing.”

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