Kentucky’s next top college basketball prospect is ready to commit to a school
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Class of 2026 college basketball recruit Taylen Kinney will commit to a college on Sunday.
- Kinney is a five-star point guard who is ranked as the No. 17 player in the 2026 class.
- Kentucky is one of the schools still in the running for Kinney, but UK isn’t the favorite.
The next elite basketball prospect from the commonwealth is set to make his highly anticipated college commitment in just a few days.
Taylen Kinney — a 6-foot-3 point guard who is a five-star recruit in the 2026 class — will make his college choice Sunday afternoon.
Kinney, who is ranked in the 247Sports Composite as the No. 17 overall prospect in the high school senior class, is from Northern Kentucky. He began his prep basketball career at Newport High School before transferring to the Atlanta-based Overtime Elite program for his junior and senior seasons.
His college commitment will take place at 1:15 p.m. Sunday in Kinney’s hometown of Newport and will be live-streamed on the CBS Sports College Basketball YouTube channel.
Kinney is still considering six colleges in his recruitment: Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville and Oregon.
But Kansas is considered the favorite to land Kinney as the centerpiece of its 2026 recruiting class. Coach Bill Self and the Jayhawks don’t have a commitment yet in the 2026 class.
Kinney took an official recruiting visit to each of his final six schools. Louisville and UK both got visits from Kinney in June. He visited Kansas and Indiana in August and Oregon and Arkansas in September.
Known both for his flashy on-court skill and online stardom thanks to the “6-7” meme, Kinney is one of the most popular prep basketball players in the country. Between Instagram and TikTok combined, Kinney counts more than 1.3 million social media followers. He has a robust business profile, which includes his own brand of canned water and an NIL endorsement deal with Adidas.
But, there’s also plenty of substance to Kinney’s basketball game.
Last season at Overtime Elite, Kinney averaged 20.1 points, 5.0 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 steals during the regular season. Kinney played on the same OTE team as incoming UK freshman guard Jasper Johnson.
“Kinney projects to be a strong, reliable, multi-year combo guard at the highest level of college basketball,” Zach Welch, an analyst for Pro Insight Basketball, said. “He is a gifted, creative scorer who can get his own (shot) at any time. He especially impresses with his ability to generate shots within or outside of structure.”
The 247Sports Composite has Kinney ranked as the No. 2 overall point guard in the 2026 class, behind another UK recruit, Deron Rippey Jr.
Kinney’s pathway to basketball stardom began at Newport, where he played three varsity seasons for the Wildcats, including one as an eighth grader. During his time at Newport, Kinney earned all-state honors and led the school to appearances in the Sweet 16 state tournament in 2023 and 2024. Newport won the small-school All “A” Classic state championship in 2024, defeating eventual Sweet 16 state champion Lyon County (and future UK basketball player Travis Perry) in the semifinals of that event.
Across his three varsity seasons at Newport, Kinney scored 1,220 points.
“Kinney’s versatility is a big part of his value proposition, considering his ability to play with or without the ball and his prowess (at) creating from a variety of scenarios,” Welch said. “That being said, Kinney is a guard that can truly go get a bucket at will unlike many others, so playing for a team that allows him to go into attack mode with the ball in his hands would serve him well.”
There remains an outside chance that Kinney will return to the commonwealth for his college career, although neither Kentucky nor Louisville is considered a favorite in his recruitment as Sunday’s announcement nears.
Kentucky first expressed recruiting interest in Kinney when John Calipari was the head coach of the Cats. Calipari hosted Kinney for Big Blue Madness in 2023. Mark Pope extended a scholarship offer in August 2024, while Kinney was at Kentucky on an unofficial visit.
Kinney’s return trips to Lexington have included his official visit to the Wildcats this past summer and a Rupp Arena appearance in February for Calipari’s homecoming, when Arkansas beat Kentucky in an emotionally-charged game.
Just prior to his official visit to Kentucky in late June, Kinney received on-court instruction from Pope and played alongside Johnson and fellow UK freshman Malachi Moreno at a USA Basketball Under-19 national team training camp in Colorado.
Kinney is one of 20 uncommitted players in the 2026 recruiting class with a UK scholarship offer. Pope and the Wildcats are still looking to get on the board with a commitment from a high school senior. Currently, UK is one of only six SEC schools without a commitment from a class of 2026 prospect.
The fact that Louisville is considered to be on the outside looking in for Kinney’s recruitment is a surprise. Head coach Pat Kelsey’s U of L program was thought to be in the driver’s seat to land Kinney, before Kinney’s recruiting visit to Kansas last month changed things.
Like Kentucky, Louisville is also seeking its first commitment from a class of 2026 recruit.
Taylen Kinney leads a new era of prep basketball talent from Kentucky
Kinney is the latest top college basketball prospect to emerge from the commonwealth.
Recent years have seen the likes of Perry (Lyon County), Johnson (Woodford County), Moreno (Great Crossing), Reed Sheppard (North Laurel) and Trent Noah (Harlan County) all use prep basketball careers in Kentucky as a springboard to high-major college basketball.
But of the more than 300 payers currently ranked by the 247Sports Composite in the 2026 recruiting class, only four are set to play their upcoming senior seasons at a Kentucky high school: three-star point guard Cole Edelen (Louisville Male), three-star power forward Reece Davidson (North Laurel), three-star point guard Jonathan Moss (Daviess County) and two-star small forward Jeremiah Jackson (St. Xavier).
Edelen is committed to Western Kentucky. Davidson, who is a cousin of Sheppard, is committed to Liberty. Moss is committed to Tennessee-Chattanooga. Jackson is committed to Southern Illinois.
Looking ahead to the high school junior class, only one of the 187 players in those 247Sports Composite rankings will play at a Kentucky high school this season. That’s Marshall County small forward Matthew Langhi, a three-star prospect in the class of 2027 whose father, Dan, was the SEC Player of the Year in 2000 at Vanderbilt.
