It’s time to reset the recruiting board, again, for the Kentucky men’s basketball program.
On Sunday afternoon, one of UK’s top guard recruits in the 2026 class, five-star prospect and Northern Kentucky native Taylen Kinney, committed to Kansas from among six finalists that included Kentucky.
Kinney is the second class of 2026 guard with a UK scholarship offer to make his college commitment, joining fellow five-star prospect Jason Crowe Jr. Like Kinney, he also opted against joining Mark Pope’s program for the 2026-27 season: Crowe committed to Missouri in July.
This means that as October approaches, not only is UK basketball still without a commitment from any player in the 2026 class, but the Wildcats have specifically missed out on two of their top guard recruits.
Where do the Wildcats go from here when it comes to the 2026 crop of guards, and how concerned should UK basketball fans be by this development?
Kentucky basketball is still recruiting guards Deron Rippey Jr., Jordan Smith
There are two remaining guard prospects in the 2026 recruiting class that UK basketball has its eye on: true point guard Deron Rippey Jr. and shooting guard Jordan Smith.
Rippey, a 6-foot-2 prospect from New York who is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 11 overall player in the 2026 class, has UK listed among his final 10 schools under consideration. He was supposed to take an official visit to Lexington in August, but his travel to the commonwealth was affected by weather. Rippey scrapped those plans, but he will be taking his official visit to Kentucky this coming weekend.
The 18-year-old Rippey, who is ranked as the top point guard in the 2026 class, earned a Kentucky scholarship offer in June and also received on-court instruction from Pope during a USA Basketball training camp over the summer.
In previous conversations with the Herald-Leader, one of Rippey’s travel basketball coaches on the Adidas circuit, Gary Ervin, spoke of Rippey’s leadership skills as one of the top backcourt prospects in the 2026 class.
“You can have all the talent in the world, but if you’re not competitive and you don’t play at a high level … I think that he’s a two-way player, this early in his basketball career,” said Ervin, who played college basketball at Arkansas and Mississippi State.
Over the summer, Kentucky was hyped as a school that would make a recruiting push for Rippey. In recent weeks though, the chatter hasn’t been as good surrounding the Wildcats, with Miami, North Carolina State and Tennessee listed as the leaders in his recruitment.
Rippey has already taken recruiting visits this year to Miami, North Carolina, Texas and Syracuse. After this weekend’s visit to Kentucky, he has trips lined up to Duke and Tennessee later this month, with a final official visit to North Carolina State set for Nov. 7.
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Class of 2026 college basketball recruit Deron Rippey Jr. is ranked as the top point guard prospect in the high school senior class. USA Basketball
The other class of 2026 guard that Kentucky remains in on is Jordan Smith, a combo guard who is ranked as the No. 2 overall recruit in the high school senior class.
Smith is expected to be one of Kentucky’s three visitors — along with centers Josh Irving and Ethan Taylor — for Big Blue Madness weekend.
Smith has the Wildcats among his final six schools under consideration, along with Arkansas, Duke, Georgetown, Indiana and Syracuse. He visited Arkansas earlier this month and Duke last year.
Along with his athleticism and strength, Smith’s competitiveness and motor are viewed as qualities that separate him from other class of 2026 recruits.
When Pope paid a recruiting visit to Smith last year, his conversation with Smith reflected just how distinct a prospect the 6-foot-2 guard is.
“Mark Pope said that he wants to coach somebody like me because he’s never coached anybody like me before,” Smith said last year. “I guess that they just probably think that I’m different than other players.”
Like Rippey, Smith — who is from Washington, D.C. — also got on-court instruction from Pope over the summer at a USA Basketball training camp. Smith is already a decorated member of the USA Basketball system: He’s been part of the winning American teams at the 2024 FIBA Under-17 World Cup and the 2025 FIBA Under-19 World Cup.
While Smith isn’t viewed as a floor general in the same way Rippey is, Smith’s ability to impact winning is viewed as perhaps the best of any recruit in the high school senior class.
The Wildcats will be aiming to put their best foot forward with Smith when he visits for a signature weekend on the UK basketball calendar. But it’s also clear that Pope and company have some ground to make up in his recruitment. Earlier this month, 247Sports reported that Kentucky is “on the outside looking in” with Smith, who appears to have Duke and hometown school Georgetown leading his recruitment.
In addition to Rippey and Smith, UK also has scholarship offers out to guards Ikenna Alozie and Brandon McCoy in the 2026 recruiting group, but the Cats aren’t expected to be a factor for either player. Neither Alozie nor McCoy has an official visit scheduled to UK.
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Class of 2026 college basketball recruit Jordan Smith is the No. 2 overall prospect in the high school senior class. USA Basketball
What is Kentucky basketball’s long-term outlook at guard?
Even as Rippey and Smith remain high school recruiting options at guard for Kentucky for next season, there’s not an absolute need for the Wildcats to land either player because of the potential continuity that Pope’s current roster has.
Seniors Denzel Aberdeen (a Florida transfer) and Otega Oweh are the only regular UK players who will be out of college eligibility after this season. In the backcourt, this means freshman Jasper Johnson, sophomores Collin Chandler and Kam Williams and junior Jaland Lowe could all return for the 2026-27 season.
This will depend on a number of factors, including each player’s individual performance during the 2025-26 season, as well as what the college basketball landscape looks like as schools continue to adapt to a revenue sharing world.
But there’s a path for UK to retain as many as four key backcourt players for the 2026-27 season. This, combined with the premium that college teams now place on the transfer portal, means Kentucky is likely to be in a good spot in 2026 with its backcourt regardless of whether Rippey and Smith become Wildcats or not.
Establishing the foundation for long-term roster retention extends beyond the backcourt for UK. Aside from Aberdeen, Oweh and back-end roster players Walker Horn and Zach Tow, 12 of the 16 members of this season’s Kentucky squad will be eligible to return next season.