A major recruiting week continues for UK basketball. Here’s the latest news
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- Kentucky basketball is seeking its first transfer portal commitment of the offseason.
- Mark Pope’s program has hosted Washington’s Zoom Diallo, BYU’s Rob Wright III on visits.
- UK has also hosted Tyran Stokes, the top-ranked high school senior, on a recruiting visit.
Major moves are being made in college basketball’s transfer portal, and Kentucky has been stuck on the sideline.
For now.
Mark Pope’s program has yet to receive a commitment out of the NCAA transfer portal, which has now been officially open for more than a week.
The Wildcats need to replace plenty of production from this past season’s team, including UK’s top five scorers from the 2025-26 season.
Recruits, both from the transfer portal and high school ranks, have been on campus in Lexington this week. More will follow in the coming days. Still, the Wildcats are waiting to make the kind of major offseason addition that Pope needs ahead of a critical third season in charge of his alma mater’s basketball program.
Here’s the latest on Kentucky’s recruiting efforts as the offseason progresses.
Rob Wright, Tyran Stokes complete recruiting visits to Kentucky
This week has been billed as perhaps the biggest recruiting week of Pope’s Kentucky tenure.
That’s because the Wildcats hosted a pair of game-changing prospects on campus Monday and Tuesday in the forms of BYU sophomore guard Rob Wright III and high school prospect Tyran Stokes.
The 6-foot-1 Wright averaged 18.1 points, 4.6 assists and 1.2 steals per game for BYU this past season and is ranked by 247Sports as the top available point guard in the portal, as well as the No. 6 overall portal player.
Stokes is the consensus top high school senior in the 2026 class. A Louisville native, the 6-7 Stokes has had a drawn-out college recruitment. Kansas and Kentucky have jockeyed for position in Stokes’ recruitment over the past few months, and Stokes himself hasn’t set a timeline or date for his highly-anticipated college choice.
On Tuesday afternoon, 247Sports’ Travis Branham reported there’s a growing chance Wright will withdraw from the transfer portal and return for his junior season at BYU. Following BYU’s loss to Texas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last month, Wright said he would be playing for BYU during the 2026-27 season, if he was still in college basketball.
Stokes is one of two five-star prospects in the high school senior class yet to settle on a college choice. While significant NIL and revenue-sharing resources would need to be devoted to land Stokes, he’s a game-changing prospect and a likely one-and-done college player.
Should he commit to Kentucky, Stokes would become the first top-ranked high school recruit to pledge to the Wildcats since Skal Labissiere in 2015.
Wednesday marks the start of the spring signing period for high school basketball players.
Kentucky’s lone commitment from the 2026 class is four-star point guard Mason Williams, who is a son of new UK assistant coach Mo Williams. The younger Williams is expected to sign paperwork tying him to the Kentucky program for next season.
UK basketball continues to court transfer portal players
While Wright and Stokes are the headline names, other potential offseason additions could be in Lexington on recruiting visits later this week.
This group includes 6-5 Furman freshman guard Alex Wilkins, 6-9 Syracuse sophomore forward Donnie Freeman and 6-3 Colgate junior guard Jalen Cox.
There’s also continued interest between the Wildcats and 6-6 Yale sophomore forward Isaac Celiscar, who averaged 13.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists for the Bulldogs this past season. Kentucky made an in-person visit to see Celiscar over the weekend.
Another player to watch for the Cats is Utah junior guard Terrence Brown, who averaged nearly 20 points per game this past season. The 6-3 Brown has already taken a visit to North Carolina, which is under new leadership with first-time college head coach Michael Malone. Brown also has visits set to Kansas and Kentucky.
This past weekend, Kentucky hosted Washington sophomore guard Zoom Diallo as the Wildcats’ first visitor of the transfer-portal season.
UK was expected to be in the mix for 7-foot San Diego State sophomore forward Magoon Gwath, but Gwath committed to DePaul on Tuesday night.
Ex-Cat Jayden Quaintance declares for 2026 NBA draft
Jayden Quaintance’s time in Lexington is over after one season and only four games played.
On Tuesday, the 6-10 Quaintance declared for the 2026 NBA Draft following two college seasons at Arizona State and UK. The 18-year-old Quaintance suffered a torn ACL near the end of his freshman season with the Sun Devils, and his Kentucky debut was delayed until late December.
Quaintance impressed in that contest, logging 10 points and eight rebounds in a win over Rick Pitino’s St. John’s program on Dec. 20 in Atlanta. But, Quaintance failed to match that showing in his three other appearances. His final appearance for Kentucky came Jan. 7 during a home loss to Missouri.
Swelling in Quaintance’s surgically-repaired knee limited his availability during his lone season at UK.
Quaintance was signed to play at Kentucky as a high school recruit in the 2024 class, but he backed out of that pledge after former UK coach John Calipari left the program.
Quaintance is projected to be a first-round pick in this summer’s NBA Draft.
Former UK basketball signee Acaden Lewis commits to Miami
Acaden Lewis has been a popular name in UK basketball discourse this offseason.
That’s because he was signed to play at Kentucky as a four-star point-guard recruit in 2025, before asking out of the paperwork tying him to UK last April. The surprise departures of Lewis and freshman guard Travis Perry — who is back in the transfer portal again after spending one season at Ole Miss — meant Kentucky didn’t have enough point-guard depth to withstand a season-ending injury suffered by junior Jaland Lowe.
The 6-foot-2 Lewis instead turned in a productive freshman year at Villanova — averaging 12.2 points and 5.3 assists per contest — before hitting the portal himself this offseason.
Now, Lewis knows his next landing spot.
On Tuesday, Lewis committed to Jai Lucas’ Miami program. Lewis, who is ranked as the No. 20 portal player, joins Georgia sophomore center Somto Cyril (No. 21 in the rankings) as offseason portal additions for the Hurricanes.
Cyril, a 6-11 big man, was signed to play at UK in the 2024 recruiting class, but he asked out of his paperwork with the Wildcats following the departure of Calipari.
Miami is positioned to be a contender in the ACC next season after going 26-9 overall this past season, which was Lucas’ first as head coach.
In other news concerning UK’s 2024 high school recruiting class, sophomore guard Karter Knox took a recruiting visit to Louisville on Tuesday. Knox — who is a younger brother of former one-and-done UK player Kevin Knox — was the final high school recruit to commit to Calipari at Kentucky.
Knox followed Calipari to Arkansas, where he spent the past two seasons. He was a regular starter for the Razorbacks and averaged 8.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game this past season before undergoing season-ending surgery on his left meniscus in February.
Top portal recruits make college commitments for 2026-27 season
High-level transfer portal players are beginning to come off the board.
As of Tuesday night, 23 of the top 50 transfers in the 247Sports rankings have chosen their next college stops.
This includes the top-ranked portal player, 6-10 Kansas sophomore forward Flory Bidunga, who is heading to Louisville. Jackson Shelstad, a 6-1 junior guard from Oregon who is No. 18 in the rankings, will also play next season for Pat Kelsey’s Cardinals.
Other top transfers who have committed to new schools include: Kansas State junior guard P.J. Haggerty (No. 7) to Texas A&M, TCU sophomore forward David Punch (No. 9) to Texas, San Diego State junior guard Miles Byrd (No. 11) to Providence, Colorado freshman guard Isaiah Johnson (No. 14) to Texas, Providence freshman guard Stefan Vaaks (No. 15) to Illinois and LSU junior guard Dedan Thomas Jr. (No. 17) to Houston.
This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 7:44 PM.
