Kentucky basketball misses out on another class of 2026 recruit
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Class of 2026 college basketball recruit Josh Irving commits to Texas A&M.
- Irving is a four-star center from California who is ranked as the No. 51 national recruit.
- Kentucky basketball is still without a commit from the 2026 recruiting class.
Kentucky basketball has missed out on another class of 2026 recruit.
On Thursday afternoon, four-star center Josh Irving committed to Texas A&M from a final group of three programs that also included Louisville and UK.
A 6-foot-10 center from Pasadena High School in California, Irving is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 51 overall recruit in the high school senior class. In addition to his three finalists, Irving also considered San Diego State, SMU, Kansas and Southern California, among others, during his recruiting process.
Irving’s commitment to new head coach Bucky McMillan and the Aggies was livestreamed on the CBS Sports College Basketball YouTube channel.
McMillan is entering his first season at Texas A&M after previously coaching Samford for five seasons. He took Samford to the NCAA Tournament in 2024.
“I’ve talked to Coach Bucky for a minute, and he saw that he could make me into the player that I want to be, that I envision myself being,” Irving said after committing to Texas A&M. “I watched so much film on them. Just their practice, their games (from) when he was at Samford and I just believe he could really, just truly take my game to the next level. Expand my offense, stretch the floor a little bit, shooting 3s. He also loves (my) defense. I just feel like this program is the best fit.”
Irving was recently in Lexington on an official visit to Mark Pope’s UK program during Big Blue Madness weekend. This was Irving’s final recruiting visit, as he visited both Louisville and Texas A&M in September. Irving is now the seventh player in the 2026 recruiting class with a Kentucky scholarship offer to pass on the Wildcats and commit to another school.
The others were guards Jason Crowe Jr. (Missouri) and Taylen Kinney (Kansas), and small forwards Tajh Ariza (Oregon), Cole Cloer (North Carolina State), Bryson Howard (Duke) and Anthony Thompson (Ohio State).
“As of right now, (Irving is) at his best operating as a primary rim protector and rim runner, but he’s also shown some tangible signs of potential in a few key areas,” Zach Welch, an analyst for Pro Insight Basketball, said in a message to the Herald-Leader. “Namely, his soft touch and strong free throw shooting track record could lend themselves to major floor-spacing development. He also has flashed enough of a handle and passing chops to invest in his ball skills further.”
With Irving’s choice of Texas A&M, Kentucky remains one of only three SEC programs without a commitment from a class of 2026 prospect. The others are Auburn and Georgia. The weeklong early signing period for class of 2026 college basketball recruits begins Nov. 12 and runs through Nov. 19.
The Aggies now have two players committed from the high school senior class. Irving joins four-star combo guard Neiko Mundey for Texas A&M.
“Overall, Irving has a solid foundation as a big who can make a difference at the rim on both ends,” Welch added. “But, (Irving) may also be able to become more versatile, especially offensively.”
After missing on Josh Irving, what’s next for UK basketball recruiting?
There are still 14 uncommitted prospects in the 2026 recruiting class with a Kentucky scholarship offer. But one name towers over the rest from the high school senior class.
Pope and Kentucky are one of five finalists for Tyran Stokes, a 6-foot-7 playmaker from Louisville who is the consensus top prospect in the 2026 recruiting class. UK has been classified by 247Sports national basketball analyst Travis Branham as a “slight favorite” to land Stokes, who already has a name, image and likeness deal in place with Nike.
While plenty of rumors have swirled regarding a commitment date for Stokes, he remains uncommitted.
Kentucky is also recruiting other top players from the 2026 class, including guards Caleb Holt, Deron Rippey Jr. and Jordan Smith, forwards Christian Collins and Baba Oladotun and center Arafan Diane.
Oladotun took a recruiting visit to UK this past weekend.
As a result of still not having a 2026 commit, the Wildcats are severely lagging behind other SEC programs when it comes to recruiting high school seniors. Missouri (No. 1), Vanderbilt (No. 8), Tennessee (No. 9) and LSU (No. 10) all rank in the top 10 of the 247Sports national team recruiting rankings. SEC schools Mississippi State (No. 13), Arkansas (No. 14) and Alabama (No. 17) also have quality recruiting groups in place.
During UK’s team media day earlier this month, Pope spoke about the high school recruiting outlook for his program.
“I think the process is even more fun than it’s ever been. I’ll continue to say that the most important part of this process for us is not finding the best, highest-ranked player,” Pope said. “You’d be shocked at how many times we end up mutually walking away because we know what Kentucky is, and finding the right player here... It doesn’t amount to the sum of just going to find whoever someone is ranking the highest player.”
Landing a game-changing recruit like Stokes would obviously change the calculus for Kentucky. It’s also worth noting that the Cats don’t need to bring in many 2026 recruits because of the potential roster continuity that Pope’s program has.
Twelve of the 14 expected contributors on this season’s UK team will have college eligibility beyond the 2025-26 season. Florida transfer Denzel Aberdeen and preseason SEC Player of the Year Otega Oweh are the only regular UK players who will be unable to return to college next season.
Pope has also shown proficiency at recruiting via the transfer portal at Kentucky. In both 2024 and 2025, Pope’s incoming transfer classes ranked in the top five in the nation, per 247Sports.
This story was originally published October 23, 2025 at 12:07 PM.
