Mark Pope has his first NBA draft selection as a college head coach.
Former Kentucky basketball wing Koby Brea — who played four college seasons at Dayton and a fifth-year at UK — was selected in the second round with the No. 41 overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night.
Despite his selection by the Warriors, Brea will be on his way to the Phoenix Suns as part of a trade. This means Brea is set to share the backcourt in Phoenix with ex-Cat Devin Booker, among others.
Brea, a New York City native, is now the first college player with Pope as his head coach to be selected in the NBA draft. Pope has been a college head coach for 10 seasons, with four coming at Utah Valley, five at BYU and now one under his belt at Kentucky.
In his 15-season run as the Kentucky basketball coach, John Calipari produced a total of 50 NBA draft picks. Now, Pope has his first.
During his lone season with the Wildcats, the 6-foot-6 Brea led Kentucky with 93 made 3-pointers last season. He also led Kentucky with a 43.5% success rate on 3-point shots. This was part of a strong teamwide shooting season for the Cats, as Pope’s first UK squad set a program record for 3-pointers made in a season.
Across 36 games (16 starts) in Lexington, Brea averaged 28 minutes played per contest and a career-best 11.6 points per game. He also averaged 3.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists.
“It’s still surreal every time I walk in the locker room, and I’m able to put this jersey on,” Brea said in March following his final game as a Kentucky basketball player, a loss in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament to Tennessee in Indianapolis. “Just from everything I have dealt with, everything I have been through, where I come from, just to be able to put it on, it’s super special.”
Brea arrived at Kentucky with a reputation as one of the best 3-point shooters in all of college basketball following four prolific distance shooting seasons at Dayton.
Over his five-year college career, Brea was a 43.4% 3-point shooter.
His path to becoming an NBA draft selection has been quite the tale.
Brea grew up in New York, and both of his parents are originally from the Dominican Republic. And while he emerged as a standout college shooter at Dayton, that journey wasn’t without struggles, including several serious injuries. One of those injury setbacks even led to Brea being in a wheelchair for several weeks.
Koby Brea’s NBA draft selection continues a Kentucky basketball streak
Entering this week’s NBA draft, the consensus was that Brea would be a second-round draft pick, something that came to fruition Thursday night.
And Brea’s selection on Thursday night extends a longstanding NBA draft streak for the Kentucky program.
UK has now had at least one player selected in each NBA draft since 2008. This is a stretch of 18 consecutive drafts with at least one Kentucky player selected. UK is the only school in the country to have at least one player selected in each NBA draft since 2008.
Another UK basketball streak in the NBA draft was snapped this year, though. For the first time since 2009, UK didn’t have a player chosen in the first round of the NBA draft.