Top college basketball recruit passes on UK, commits to another SEC school
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- Class of 2026 college basketball recruit Jason Crowe Jr. commits to Missouri.
- Crowe, a 6-foot-3 guard, was also being recruited by Kentucky, among other schools.
- Crowe is the first top 25 prospect in the 2026 recruiting class to commit to a college.
The first top-25 prospect in the 2026 college basketball recruiting class is off the board.
And he’ll be coming to the SEC.
On Friday evening, standout guard Jason Crowe Jr. committed to Missouri at Peach Jam, the season-ending tournament for the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League. The event is held at the Riverview Park Activities Center in North Augusta, South Carolina.
Crowe committed to head coach Dennis Gates and the Tigers during an announcement ceremony that was livestreamed via CBS Sports. Crowe’s commitment came on the day that he turned 17 years old.
A 6-foot-3, left-handed combo guard from just outside of Los Angeles, Crowe is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as a five-star prospect and as the No. 6 national recruit in the 2026 class. According to that same recruiting service, Crowe is the first top-25 recruit in the 2026 class to make his college choice. Previously, the highest-ranked recruit to commit to a school was No. 27 national prospect JJ Andrews (Arkansas).
“He wasn’t just talking to me, trying to recruit me, he was actually there for me as a player and then as a person as well,” Crowe said of Gates following his commitment to Missouri.
Crowe’s commitment to the Tigers — a program that went 22-12 last season and was a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament — caps what was a curious recruitment that also involved Kentucky, among several other brand-name programs.
Crowe — who plays on the Nike EYBL circuit for Oakland Soldiers — took the uncommon step of not publicizing his college scholarship offers, and he never released a reduced list of schools under consideration, something that many prospects of his caliber do during their recruitment.
When he picked Missouri as his college choice on Friday evening, Crowe wasn’t working from a set list of schools. Regardless, his pick of Missouri was expected. Several top recruiting analysts, including Travis Branham of 247Sports, had previously logged predictions for Crowe to commit to the Tigers.
Crowe is the first player in the class of 2026 to commit to Missouri and Gates, who is about to begin his fourth season with the Tigers. Gates was previously the head coach at Cleveland State for three seasons.
DeAndre Walker, the head coach of the Oakland Soldiers, told the Herald-Leader this week that Crowe has some of the most impressive work ethic that he’s seen from a high school player.
Case in point?
Prior to an afternoon game that the Soldiers played at Peach Jam this week, Crowe was in the gym at 7 a.m. going through an individual workout.
“I’ve never seen a kid that wants it as much as he does,” Walker said. “It just shows in his work. He puts in countless hours to be who he is, so it’s no surprise what he’s doing out here.”
Crowe said he expects his high-scoring game to translate to the college level.
“A whole lot of buckets and just (a) high energy guy,” Crowe said of what he’ll be bringing to the Tigers.
What happened to Kentucky in Jason Crowe Jr.’s recruitment?
For a while, the scuttlebutt was trending in a positive direction when it came to Kentucky basketball’s recruitment of Crowe.
Much was made of the strong ties that exist between the Crowe family and Kentucky assistant coach Jason Hart, who holds a plethora of ties to the basketball scene in Southern California. The crux of this stemmed from the relationship between Hart and Crowe’s father of the same name, who are longtime friends and attended Inglewood High School together in the greater Los Angeles region.
Inglewood is also where the younger Crowe plays his high school hoops.
“Both of them just have a plan,” Walker added about the elder and younger Crowe. “They stuck to it and put in that work, and he’s here now.”
For all the smoke that was spread surrounding this connection, it doesn’t seem like Kentucky was ever the leader in Crowe’s quiet recruitment.
“He wasn’t expected to make a decision until the fall, but things took a surprise twist and majorly sped up,” Branham, the 247Sports recruiting expert, recently told the Herald-Leader about Crowe’s recruitment.
Now Crowe, who is known as a crafty scorer with a strong handle, will be taking his talents to Missouri.
“He’s a threat, whether it’s passing, whether it’s scoring. I can say that he works on his game that much to where it doesn’t matter what you throw at him, he’s going to adjust,” Walker said of Crowe.
The Wildcats still have plenty of opportunities going forward to utilize the West Coast connections boasted by Hart, who had a 10-year professional playing career, was an assistant coach at Southern Cal and was the head coach of the NBA’s G League Ignite team prior to joining Pope’s staff.
UK has offered a scholarship to 15 other players in the 2026 recruiting group, including several who call Southern California home. This group includes guard Brandon McCoy, small forward Tajh Ariza and power forward Christian Collins.
Mark Pope, UK basketball continue to recruit at Peach Jam
Crowe’s commitment during Peach Jam also came during an evaluation period for college basketball coaches.
From Thursday through Sunday, college coaches are allowed to be at Peach Jam, and other events nationwide, watching prospects play.
Aside from Crowe, there are 10 prospects who currently hold Kentucky scholarship offers who are taking part in this year’s Peach Jam. This includes power forward Tyran Stokes, the consensus top recruit in the 2026 class who is teammates with Crowe on the Oakland Soldiers team.
Seven of these Kentucky recruits at Peach Jam are class of 2026 prospects and three are from the class of 2027.
This week, Pope, Hart and Kentucky associate head coach Alvin Brooks III were all out recruiting at Peach Jam.
This story was originally published July 18, 2025 at 5:35 PM.
