UK basketball’s next recruiting visitor is the son of a former NBA All-Star
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky basketball is hosting class of 2026 recruit Bryson Howard for an official visit.
- Howard is a five-star small forward recruit from Texas.
- Howard’s father, Josh, is a former NBA All-Star and ACC Player of the Year.
The buzz is continuing to build ahead of Mark Pope’s second Kentucky basketball season.
Official practice has commenced for the 2025-26 Wildcats. UK’s annual Pro Day for NBA scouts is now just days away, with Big Blue Madness set to follow next weekend. From there, the annual Blue-White scrimmage will take center stage, with marquee preseason exhibitions against Purdue and Georgetown University to follow.
But until then, Pope and his staff will devote plenty of attention to making an impact with the handful of recruits still scheduled to visit Kentucky this month.
And this weekend, that means entertaining the son of a former NBA All-Star.
Kentucky’s lone recruiting visitor this weekend is Bryson Howard, a 6-foot-5 small forward from Texas who has turned into the recruiting story of the summer after quickly rising to five-star status.
Howard — the son of former Wake Forest standout and longtime NBA player Josh Howard — will begin his UK visit Saturday. He’s ranked as the No. 12 overall player in the 2026 recruiting class by the 247Sports Composite. Also according to 247Sports, Howard is now focused on three schools in his fast-moving recruitment: Duke, Kentucky and North Carolina.
It’s shaping up to be a battle between blue blood programs to secure Howard’s commitment.
There’s good reason for that. A lengthy, left-handed wing, Howard turned heads this summer with his play on the Nike travel circuit. A physical, two-way player, Howard’s stock-rising summer in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League included averaging nearly 21 points per game while shooting better than 46% from 3-point range on five attempts per game.
These traits have allowed Howard to enter his high school senior season as one of the most-hyped prospects in the country.
“(Howard) projects as one of the premier shooting specialists in the class, which is a major part of his meteoric rise up the recruiting rankings,” Zach Welch, an analyst for Pro Insight Basketball, said in a message to the Herald-Leader. “His shooting prowess stems from his versatility. He is particularly comfortable getting shots off in a variety of situations and demonstrates the ability to quickly set his feet and square his shoulders from any angle that many of the best shooters do. Beyond this, he also gets his shot up quickly and has the feel as an off-ball mover to make him a threat at all times.”
In addition to his shooting prowess, Howard has other key traits working in his favor in long-term projetions.
“He also brings value with his finishing at the basket, quick decision-making and budding space-creation arsenal,” Welch added. “His finishing is accentuated by his surprising ability to impose himself physically and his stellar body control and touch from a variety of angles. Underlying his skillset is a baseline level of two-way feel and a motor that always runs hot, making him a great complementary player on both sides of the ball.”
Howard’s age is also working in his favor. He won’t turn 18 years old until after his graduation from Heritage High School in Frisco, Texas, which is located just North of Dallas.
Bryson Howard is the son of former college, NBA star Josh Howard
Another key part of Howard’s basketball story is his professional pedigree.
His father, Josh, was a three-time All-ACC selection at Wake Forest and the ACC Player of the Year in 2003 for the Demon Deacons. Josh — who had his No. 5 jersey retired at Wake Forest and was a first-round NBA draft choice in 2003 — played in more than 500 games across 10 seasons in the NBA, earning All-Star honors in 2007 with the Dallas Mavericks.
As if these connections to the game weren’t enough, the elder Howard is now in college basketball coaching. Josh Howard is in his sixth season as the head men’s basketball coach at the University of North Texas at Dallas, an NAIA school where he also serves as the athletics director.
The younger Howard has quickly honed in on the aforementioned blue bloods — Duke, UK and UNC — as his top college options after previously having other programs like Tennessee and UConn involved. Howard took official visits to both the Blue Devils and Tar Heels last month. This weekend’s trip to Lexington is Howard’s final scheduled official visit.
Kentucky’s recruitment of Howard involves associate head coach Alvin Brooks III, who holds strong recruiting ties in Texas. Currently, the 247Sports Composite has Howard ranked as the top high school senior in Texas.
It appears that UK — which offered Howard a scholarship in June — has some ground to make up on both Duke and UNC in this recruitment.
The Wildcats are still seeking their first commitment from a class of 2026 prospect. A major storyline with the high school senior class has been the lack of commitments from top-end players: Only 12 of the top 50 players in the nation have pledged to a school for next year.
But of those 12, five-star guards Jason Crowe Jr. (Missouri) and Taylen Kinney (Kansas) have both spurned Kentucky in favor of other programs.
Specifically within the SEC, UK is among a minority of teams that have yet to get on the board in the 2026 recruiting cycle. Of the 16 schools in the league, 13 already have at least one class of 2026 commitment, and six programs have multiple commits (including John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks).
Kentucky is joined by Auburn and Georgia as the only SEC schools without a commit from the high school senior class.
This story was originally published October 3, 2025 at 5:45 AM.
