Elite basketball recruit in the 2026 class names Kentucky to his top-six list
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- Class of 2026 college basketball recruit Jordan Smith Jr. named UK to his list of six schools.
- Smith is a five-star combo guard who is ranked as the No. 3 overall recruit in 2026 class.
- Smith is a 6-foot-2, 200-pound prospect from Virginia.
One of the top college basketball recruits in the rising high school senior class is still considering coming to play for Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats.
On Tuesday afternoon, class of 2026 combo guard Jordan Smith Jr. announced the final six schools that he’s considering for college. Kentucky made the cut for Smith, along with Arkansas, Duke, Georgetown, Indiana and Syracuse.
A 6-foot-2, 200-pound prospect from St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Virginia, Smith is a consensus five-star recruit and a player who is valued most for his hustle plays and defensive ability. Smith is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 3 national recruit in the 2026 class. Smith is the top combo guard in the 2026 recruiting group.
Kentucky is set to host Smith — who boasts a 6-foot-9 wingspan — for an official visit that will begin Oct. 10, which is expected to be Big Blue Madness weekend. Pope’s program will also be hosting four-star class of 2026 center Josh Irving for a visit that weekend.
“Mark Pope said that he wants to coach somebody like me because he’s never coached anybody like me before,” Smith told the Herald-Leader last October. “I guess that they just probably think that I’m different than other players.”
In addition to his October trip to Lexington, Smith has an official visit scheduled for September to Arkansas, the program that’s led by former UK coach John Calipari. Last season, Smith took official visits to Duke and Louisville, which notably didn’t make Smith’s final list of six schools. Smith has also unofficially visited Georgetown and Syracuse.
Jordan Smith Jr. remains a Kentucky basketball recruit
Smith has been a longtime standout on the Nike youth basketball circuit for Team Takeover and in youth international competitions for USA Basketball.
Recently, The Athletic anonymously polled 35 college basketball coaches at Peach Jam — the season-ending Nike grassroots basketball showcase — and asked which class of 2026 player they would most like to coach in college. Smith received the most votes in that poll, edging out Tyran Stokes, who is the top-ranked player in the 2026 recruiting group.
Earlier this summer, Smith received on-court instruction from Pope during a USA Basketball training camp in Colorado. That camp also featured incoming UK freshmen Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno.
Smith went on to represent the United States at the FIBA Under-19 World Cup, averaging 8.4 points, 2.7 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.6 assists per game as the Americans won the gold medal. Johnson, an incoming Kentucky guard, was also part of the gold-medal winning USA squad. After serving as a court coach during USA Basketball’s pre-World Cup training camp, Pope travelled to Switzerland to watch the Americans play in the event.
The victorious U.S. team in Switzerland featured four uncommitted class of 2026 players with UK scholarship offers: Caleb Holt, Brandon McCoy, Smith and Stokes. Smith was the only one of these four players to start each of the Americans’ seven games at the World Cup.
That wasn’t Smith’s first taste of success with USA Basketball, though. Last summer, Smith also won a gold medal with the United States at the FIBA Under-17 World Cup in Turkey, an event that Kentucky’s coaches also watched in person. Holt, McCoy and Stokes were also among Smith’s teammates at that tournament.
Kentucky currently has scholarship offers out to 19 uncommitted prospects in the 2026 recruiting class. Pope and the Wildcats are still in search of their first commitment in next year’s recruiting class, and Smith remains firmly on the table as an option.
UK first offered a scholarship to Smith in September 2024.
This story was originally published August 5, 2025 at 2:44 PM.
