UK basketball hosts a former Kentucky high school star for a recruiting visit
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- Kentucky basketball hosts five-star point guard Taylen Kinney for an official visit.
- Kinney is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 14 recruit in the 2026 class.
- Kinney is a former Kentucky high school basketball star at Newport.
Kentucky basketball is set to host a former commonwealth high school star on an official recruiting visit.
Starting Monday night, UK will be hosting five-star point guard Taylen Kinney on a recruiting trip in Lexington. Kinney, a 6-foot-1 floor general, is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 14 overall prospect in the 2026 recruiting class.
Kinney rose to prominence as a basketball prospect at Newport High School in Northern Kentucky. While there, he helped lead Newport to consecutive appearances in the Sweet 16 state tournament in 2023 and 2024.
Kinney — who played varsity basketball for Newport as an eighth grader, freshman and sophomore — left home last year to continue his basketball development at the Atlanta-based Overtime Elite program. That outfit has produced several former UK basketball players, including eventual NBA draft lottery pick Rob Dillingham and incoming Kentucky freshman Jasper Johnson. Kinney and Johnson were teammates this past season at OTE on the RWE team.
An all-state performer as a sophomore at Newport, Kinney is considered one of the elite high school talents in the 2026 recruiting group. With RWE last season, Kinney averaged 20.1 points, 5.0 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game in the OTE league.
Kinney’s move to OTE has also helped his rise to prominence as a social media star. Kinney currently has more than 320,000 followers on Instagram and more than 850,000 followers on TikTok.
He’s currently working with a top-15 list of schools that includes, in full: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Cincinnati, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, Louisville, Notre Dame, Oregon, Purdue, Tennessee and Xavier. A further reduction in schools under consideration is expected soon from Kinney.
This week’s trip to Lexington will be far from Kinney’s first exposure to the Kentucky program.
He collected a scholarship offer from the Wildcats in August 2024 while on an unofficial visit to UK. That unofficial trip to Kentucky last summer included a thorough film session with Mark Pope and other UK coaches.
Kinney was a visitor to Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness in 2023 under former coach John Calipari. He’s been back in Rupp Arena several times since, including in February for Calipari’s homecoming when Arkansas beat Kentucky.
In more recent times, Pope and UK assistant coaches Cody Fueger and Jason Hart conducted an in-home visit with Kinney in April.
Earlier this month, Pope and his Kentucky coaching staff enjoyed two more opportunities to evaluate Kinney. These came when Kinney participated in the NBPA Top 100 Camp in South Carolina and as part of the tryout process for the United States’ Under-19 national team.
Pope and three other Kentucky coaches were on hand at the NBPA Top 100 Camp to watch Kinney and other UK recruits in action, and Pope served as a court coach during the early part of the national team training camp.
Previously, Kinney has taken official recruiting trips to Purdue and Louisville. He’s also expected to visit Oregon in September.
Kinney recently signed an NIL endorsement deal with Adidas, and he plays AAU basketball on the Adidas 3Stripes Select Basketball circuit for Wildcat Select.
In addition to his relationship with Johnson, Kinney has previously shared the floor with other top Kentucky recruits. Earlier this summer, Kinney took part in the 2025 Adidas EuroCamp in Italy, where he was teammates with Caleb Holt and Anthony Thompson. Holt and Thompson are also class of 2026 recruits who are being pursued by Kentucky.
Kinney was a participant in last year’s Adidas EuroCamp with Holt, Thompson and incoming UK freshman Malachi Moreno.
Kinney is one of 14 class of 2026 prospects with a Kentucky basketball scholarship offer. The Wildcats don’t yet have a commitment from the 2026 recruiting group.
This story was originally published June 23, 2025 at 6:30 AM.
