CARDINALS

Perry prepping for Day 1 impact at U of L

Jeff Greer

@jeffgreer_cj

Kentucky Derby Festival Classic, 7 p.m., Saturday, Freedom Hall. General admission: $20.

His routine depends on the day, but Louisville basketball signee Darius Perry takes his college preparation very seriously all week.

On Mondays after school, he works with a trainer, focusing on his explosiveness, quickness and speed after getting some shots up and grabbing a snack at home. On Tuesdays, the 6-foot-2 Georgia native works out on his own in the morning, then gets more shots up in the gym after school.

Perry, a consensus four-star guard who will play in Saturday's Kentucky Derby Festival Classic, is taking an all-around approach to his final few months before arriving at U of L for his freshman year of college in late May. He is working on ball-handling, decision-making, defense and shooting in addition to all the conditioning and weight training.

"I treat it like a job," Perry said. "If I was an adult and I had a full-time job, then I’d have to wake up early no matter what time I go to sleep. I’d have to get up at the same time. I want to get better. I’ve got to get better. I just go do it. It’s a must. It’s not, 'Do I want to?' It’s, 'I have to.'"

Perry's determination to be ready for college should help him and U of L quite a bit. The Cards spent last season without a backup point guard to help Quentin Snider, who played 31.3 minutes per game. When Snider injured his hip and missed six games, U of L cobbled together lineups with Donovan Mitchell and Tony Hicks running the offense. Both players did well, but they were playing out of position.

U of L won't have to shift and stretch its lineups next season. Perry, a Marietta-Wheeler High product, is part of a four-man recruiting class that provides much-needed reinforcements in several areas of Louisville's roster. He should compete for significant minutes in his first year.

"I think he’s going to be good (in college)," said Jaylen Brown, Perry's former high school teammate who is now playing for the NBA's Boston Celtics. "I think he’s going to be an NBA player one day. I think he’s a very confident player. He can shoot the ball really well and defend at a high level, so if he keeps his head, he’s going to be good."

That's why Perry is trying to put in the work now. The goal, he said, is to be in such good physical shape when he gets to school that U of L's coaching staff can focus more on teaching him defensive and offensive schemes than getting his conditioning to the level the Cards require.

"(U of L coach Rick Pitino) wants to keep his players lean so they can move and stay quick," Perry said. "I’m trying to get there beforehand so when I get there they don’t have to put me through a lot."

Perry joked that he is "a lot like" Louisville center Anas Mahmoud, whose attempts at adding weight to his 7-foot frame have frustrated Pitino. Mahmoud got up to 215 pounds last year but lost weight when he returned home to Egypt to visit his family and was then behind schedule in his conditioning.

Perry has always weighed between 168-173 pounds and he is trying to get to 180 before college, but it's been a challenge.

"I can’t gain weight for anything," Perry said. " ... I can’t get past 173. I eat a lot. I’ll eat all day, big meals. For some reason, I just don't gain any weight."

Perry, like fellow incoming freshman Jordan Nwora, said he paid much closer attention to U of L's games once he signed with the Cards. He found himself looking for "little intricate things they were doing" on both ends of the floor.

That, paired with his daily work on his fitness and game, should help Perry right away in college. His old pal Brown, who won a state title with Perry at Marietta-Wheeler, agreed.

"Just how he can score the ball, how he can guard at a high level and his ball-handling ability – I think he's going to be fantastic," Brown said.

Former Courier-Journal sports writer Adam Himmelsbach, now with the Boston Globe, spoke with Brown for this story.

TREVISO, ITALY - JUNE 10: Darius Perry of Team USA during Adidas Eurocamp Day One at La Ghirada sports center on June 10, 2016 in Treviso, Italy. (Photo by Roberto Serra/Iguana Press/Getty Images for Adidas)