NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope will never be John Calipari on the recruiting trail. Nor is he trying to be, based on how he’s approached his first class having a full year to recruit.
While he’s proven in one year to have the coaching acumen that will keep UK a top program, now he has to show he’s got the recruiting chops to match.
Pope’s best talent so far has come from the transfer portal, and his highest-ranked recruits, Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno, are both homegrown.
In going outside of the bubble, Pope’s first big swing nationally in the Class of 2026 was with a pair of teammates from California. They may just be a barometer on how good Pope can be at luring the elite, top-10 recruits in a given class.
Jason Crowe Jr., the No. 5 prospect in the class according to 247 Sports, is a 6-foot-4 southpaw shooting guard. His Nike Elite Youth Basketball League teammate just happens to be the top-ranked player in the class, Tyran Stokes.
Pope missed on one part of the equation as Crowe announced his commitment Friday and chose Missouri over the Cats.
He still has a chance with Stokes, a Louisville native. Stokes is taking the opposite approach from Crowe. The 6-8 small forward isn’t saying anything. To anybody.
Right now, he’s keeping his thoughts on his recruiting process to himself. During Nike’s Peach Jam EYBL tournament last week in North Augusta, Stokes only stopped for media inquiries to say he’s not talking during Peach Jam.
Stokes has only taken three official visits so far — to Kentucky, Louisville and Kansas. His mother, Keaira, moved him to California after living in Louisville until he was 9, but they still have family there and she said Stokes still considers himself a native despite spending the other half of his life on the West Coast.
She joked that Stokes passed on media duties to her and added that he may make a decision before his high school season starts.
“Sometimes it’s not too much, but he just wants to be Tyran not THE Tyran Stokes,” she said. “He just wants to be that kid that he really is.”
A kid in age but plays like a grown man on the court.
That drew a standing-room-only crowd Thursday from crowding in Gym 3/4 on the big court in the North Augusta Parks and Recreation Center to see Crowe and Stokes play for the Oakland Soldiers.
NBA star Ja Morant, flanked by security and what looked like a team of his own, sat on a corner baseline. Some YouTube influencer that all the kids seemed to know drew attention on the opposite corner from Morant.
Every major program was represented on the opposite sideline including Louisville’s Pat Kelsey, who is also recruiting Stokes, and Arkansas as Calipari was joined by assistant coach and former U of L head coach Kenny Payne by his side.
For a time during Calipari’s 15 years, if the Wildcats wanted a player, they were more than likely getting him.
Pope has a chance to show he can recruit at that level, albeit not at the volume of the past conveyor belt of one-and-dones that seemed to annually replenish the roster. But in his pursuit of national championship banner No. 9, it’s important that he be able to land the elite of elites.
As much as it’s been proven that teams don’t win titles with a bevy of freshmen, what’s also been true among title teams is that they all have at least one NBA first-round talent.
If Pope can’t close the deal on either, it’s not the end of Kentucky basketball. It just might indicate he’ll keep going through the transfer portal to find the best talent instead of building through high schools.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
