No. 1 College Basketball Recruit Makes Kentucky Post on Wednesday originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
After an unexpected delay, Tyran Stokes finally paid a visit to Lexington, Kentucky last weekend — marking his official tour of the University of Kentucky, and his chance to meet with men’s basketball head coach Mark Pope.
Pope has been hot on Stokes’ trail for months. Stokes is the top-ranked prospect on the ESPN 100 list — a 6’7” wing with elite athleticism and two-way NBA potential — and he has not yet announced where he will be playing NCAA basketball come 2026.
Stokes’ open recruitment has produced offers from Arkansas, Gonzaga and Oregon; he has made official visits to Kansas and Louisville in addition to Kentucky. But an Instagram post Wednesday has lent credence to the idea that Stokes might be leaning toward Lexington at this point in the process.
“How we feeling?” Stokes wrote on Instagram, captioning a collage with a video and photos from his official visit to Rupp Arena.
Amidst a 13-year national championship drought, Pope has ambitious targets in mind as he tries to rebuild the Kentucky program into a dominant force. Along with Stokes, the Wildcats are in the mix for several other top recruits in the 2026 class, including Arizona-based power forward Miikka Muurinen, Ohio small forward Anthony Hudson and Overtime Elite point guard Taylen Kinney.
But Stokes, who attends Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, is regarded as the best of the bunch. Entering his senior year of high school, Stokes is all the rage for blue-blood programs — and promotional photos of him in Kentucky’s famous blue-and-white home jersey may well be a sign of things to come.
Related: No. 1 College Basketball Recruit Turns Heads After Career Decision
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 11, 2025, where it first appeared.