Mark Pope, Kentucky basketball are back out on the recruiting trail
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Mark Pope is at the NBPA Top 100 Camp in South Carolina recruiting for UK basketball.
- Several prospects with UK basketball scholarship offers are participating in the event.
- These players include Ikenna Alozie, Tajh Ariza, Anthony Thompson and Baba Oladotun.
Mark Pope and the Kentucky basketball program are back out on the recruiting trail.
Their current location? One of the top recruiting events of the summer.
Pope was spotted by the Herald-Leader on Wednesday morning at the NBPA Top 100 Camp in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The annual event is considered a top evaluation setting for college basketball recruits, and UK has scholarship offers out to several players participating in this year’s event.
And Pope wasn’t the only Kentucky coach spotted on Wednesday morning. UK associate head coach Alvin Brooks III and assistant coaches Cody Fueger and Jason Hart are also at the NBPA Top 100 Camp. The Wildcats are rolling four deep.
A total of six players at the NBPA Top 100 Camp in South Carolina currently hold UK scholarship offers.
UK is allowed to have a recruiting presence at the NBPA Top 100 Camp on Wednesday and Thursday. Those two days have been marked on the NCAA recruiting calendar as an “evaluation period.”
According to the NCAA, an evaluation period “is that period of time when it is permissible for authorized athletics department staff members to be involved in off-campus activities designed to assess the academic qualifications and playing ability of prospective student-athletes. No in-person, off-campus recruiting contacts shall be made with the prospective student-athlete during an evaluation period.”
A key recruiting date is also on the horizon for Kentucky. Starting Sunday, college basketball coaches will be able to directly contact class of 2027 recruits. Kentucky currently has three scholarship offers out to class of 2027 prospects. These players just finished their sophomore seasons of high school basketball.
Kentucky basketball watches recruits at NBPA Top 100 Camp
From the 2026 recruiting class, four players at this week’s NBPA Top 100 Camp hold UK offers. They are: Ikenna Alozie (shooting guard), Tajh Ariza (shooting guard), Taylen Kinney (point guard) and Anthony Thompson (small forward).
There’s already been some notable recruiting news with several of these prospects. Kinney, who was previously a star player at Newport High School in Northern Kentucky, is working with a top-15 list of schools that includes UK. Kinney was teammates at the Atlanta-based Overtime Elite program this past season with incoming Kentucky freshman Jasper Johnson.
Thompson, who is from Ohio, is also working with a top-15 list that includes Kentucky. Thompson was a visitor to Big Blue Madness last year, and earned a UK scholarship offer shortly after that event. Thompson was also at Rupp Arena in January for UK’s home win over eventual national champion Florida.
From the 2027 recruiting group, Obinna Ekezie Jr. (center) and Baba Oladotun (power forward) are at the NBPA Top 100 Camp with Kentucky offers.
Oladotun was the first class of 2027 prospect to receive a UK scholarship offer.
UK basketball coaches use offseason to recruit high school players
While plenty of time this offseason has been spent on assembling a 2025-26 Kentucky roster that is likely to debut in the top 10 of the preseason AP poll, Pope and his fellow coaches have also dedicated time to scouting players for future UK squads.
Kentucky had a strong recruiting presence at several shoe circuit events in May, including the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League and the Adidas 3Stripes Select Basketball league.
Most recently, UK assistant coach Mikhail McLean was at the 2025 FIBA U-16 Men’s AmeriCup in Mexico.
A whole lot of in-person visits have also been sprinkled in throughout the offseason. Notably, Pope made an in-home trip to see Kinney, and Brooks — who is known as an ace recruiter — visited Austin Goosby, a four-star shooting guard from Texas. Goosby doesn’t yet hold a Kentucky scholarship offer, but he’s one of the participants at this week’s NBPA Top 100 Camp.
Other players at the NBPA Top 100 Camp that Kentucky coaches have visited this offseason are Alozie, Ariza and Billy White III, a four-star small forward in the 2026 class.
The Wildcats have been able to cover some extra ground recruiting-wise this offseason thanks to a rule change that went into effect last summer. All six countable coaches on an NCAA Division I men’s basketball staff are allowed to recruit off campus. Only four of the six coaches may recruit off campus at any one time.
Which players currently hold Kentucky basketball scholarship offers?
Pope and the Wildcats have offers currently extended to 14 players spanning the 2026 and 2027 recruiting groups.
The full list of scholarship offers in the 2026 recruiting class: Brandon McCoy (point guard), Jason Crowe Jr. (point guard), Taylen Kinney (point guard), Jordan Smith (shooting guard), Ikenna Alozie (shooting guard), Tajh Ariza (shooting guard), Caleb Holt (small forward), Anthony Thompson (small forward), Tyran Stokes (power forward), Christian Collins (power forward) and Miikka Muurinen (power forward).
Stokes, the top-ranked player in the 2026 recruiting class, recently took an official visit to Kentucky.
The list of scholarship offers in the 2027 recruiting class: Obinna Ekezie Jr. (center), Baba Oladotun (power forward) and CJ Rosser (power forward).
Kentucky has yet to offer any prospects from the 2028 recruiting group.
This story was originally published June 11, 2025 at 9:52 AM.
