By KStateSports.com
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang added an impactful transfer to his team for the 2023-24 season with the signing of 2023 Conference USA Player of the Year and NIT Most Outstanding Player Tylor Perry (Fort Coffee, Okla./Spiro/Coffeyville CC/North Texas) to a Financial Aid Agreement on Friday (May 5).
A 5-foot-11, 182-pound guard, Perry arrives at K-State after a decorated 2-year career (2021-23) at North Texas, where he led the Mean Green to unprecedented heights that included 56 total wins, including a school-record 31 in 2022-23, the 2023 NIT Championship and 2022 Conference USA regular-season title. In addition to being the 2023 Conference USA Player of the Year and NIT Most Outstanding Player, he was twice named to the C-USA First Team (2022, 2023) while was the league’s Sixth Man of the Year as a junior in 2022.
Prior to North Texas, Perry enjoyed a stellar 2-year career (2019-21) at Coffeyville Community College in Coffeyville, Kan., where he led the Red Ravens to 53 wins and the 2021 NJCAA National Championship en route to earning NJCAA National Tournament MVP and Second Team All-America honors.
Perry will have one year of eligibility remaining after the NCAA granted Fall 2020 and Winter 2021 sport student-athletes an additional year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He will earn his bachelor’s degree in integrated studies from North Texas this month.
All told, Perry has seen action in 131 combined games in his college career at Coffeyville Community College and North Texas, including 97 starts, leading teams to a 109-25 (.813) record with 4 straight 20-win seasons, one NJCAA National Championship, one NIT Championship and two conference titles.
Perry scored 1,043 points in his North Texas career on 43.1 percent (299-of-694) shooting from the field, including 41.3 percent (184-of-445) from 3-point range, and 85.9 percent (261-of-304) from the free throw line. He took just 65 games to score 1,000 points, which was the fifth-fastest in program history.
In his 67-game career with the Mean Green, which included 37 starts, Perry averaged 15.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.3 steals in 32.2 minutes per game. He scored in double figures in 57 of 67 career games with 19 20-point efforts and one 30-point performance. His career-high of 35 points came against San Jose State on Nov. 25, 2022, in which, he went a perfect 7-of-7 from 3-point range to set the school single-game record.
Perry’s 1,043 points rank 22nd all-time on the school’s career scoring list, while he places in the top-10 in 3 other career categories, including a tie for the third-best 3-point field goal percentage (41.3), fourth-best free throw percentage (85.9) and sixth-most made 3-point field goals (184).
This past season, Perry was the leading scorer (17.3 ppg.) on the first 30-win season in North Texas history, guiding the Mean Green to 31-7 overall record, including a second-place finish in the C-USA standings with a 16-4 mark, and the NIT crown. He was named the Conference USA Player of the Year as well as First Team All-C-USA after leading the league in 3-point field goal percentage (41.3), free throw percentage (87.2) and minutes (34.2) and placing second in 3-pointers/game (3.11) and fourth in scoring.
Perry was selected as the NIT’s Most Outstanding Player after the team’s 5-game run to the championship, averaging 20.6 points on 46 percent shooting. He posted his fourth 20-point game in the tournament championship win over UAB on March 30, finishing with 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting to go with a season-high 5 steals and 3 assists. He led the tournament in scoring (103) and 3-point field goals made (19).
Perry’s 623 points as a senior in 2022-23 were the sixth-most by UNT player in a single season, while he knocked down the second-most 3-pointers (112) to go with recording the fifth-best free throw percentage. He scored in double figures in 33 of 36 games played with 14 20-point performances highlighted by his career-best 35-point effort vs. San Jose State on Nov. 25.
As a junior, Perry led the Mean Green to a 25-7 overall record, including a tie for the regular-season 2022 C-USA Championship with a 16-2 mark, and an appearance in the NIT. He came off the bench in 30 of his 31 games played, averaging a team-best 13.5 points on 42.2 percent (122-of-289) shooting, including 41.4 percent (72-of-174) from 3-point range, en route to earning C-USA Sixth Man of the Year and first team all-conference honors. He was second nationally among reserves in points (420), 3-pointers (72) and free throws made (104).
Perry came to UNT after guiding Coffeyville Community College to a 27-3 record and the 2021 NJCAA National Championship. He was named the NJCAA National Tournament MVP after averaging 16.2 points during the tournament, which included an 18-point performance in the 108-99 win over Cowley County in the championship game. For the season, he averaged 17.6 points on 53.2 percent shooting, including 46.2 percent from 3-point range, with 2.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists en route to earning NJCAA Second Team All-America honors.
As a freshman, Perry averaged 11.8 points for the Red Ravens, who ended the 2019-20 season with a 26-8 record and on a 9-game winning streak before it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Perry prepped at Spiro High School in Fort Coffee, Okla., where he was named to the Oklahoma 3A All-State team as a senior while averaging 25 points per game in 2018-19. He guided the team to the Class 3A state semifinals.
Perry is the fourth player to sign with the Wildcats for the 2023-24 season, which includes a highly regarded three-man freshman class of Darrin “Dai Dai” Ames (Chicago, Ill.), Robert “R.J.” Jones (Denton, Texas) and Macaleab Rich (East St. Louis, Ill.), who all signed in November 2022.
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