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The Latest on the Recruitment of 2024 In-State Star, Travis Perry

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Class of 2024, point guard, Travis Perry from Eddyville, Kentucky has been making big headlines with his play on the basketball court, drawing interest from schools across the nation.

The Kentucky native just became the second player in Kentucky basketball history to score 4,000 points and still has the rest of this season and next to break “King” Kelly Coleman’s state record of 4,337 points.

According to 247 Sports, Perry is a four-star point guard, who received an offer from the University of Kentucky in June of 2022 after taking an unofficial visit to campus. In total, Perry currently holds sixteen offers including Cincinnati, Michigan, Ole Miss, and Purdue among others.

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He recently talked to Davis Moseley of 247Sports about his recruitment and what teams are sticking out to him.

Kentucky

“Coach Cal and those guys do a great job. They always have a top-notch program and it’s fun to be able to see them up close. It’s close so I’m able to get up there for quick visits and practices. It’s a great program and I’m glad to have them recruiting me.”

Purdue

“I went to Purdue to watch a football game during my official visit weekend. I was able to sit with Coach Painter and all the staff. It was great being around their players and I love the way they do things over there. They were the #1 team in the nation before their loss to Indiana but they have a great system. The main thing is Coach Painter’s pitch, how he loves the guys he has and recruits the players that will be successful in his system.”

Michigan

“I also visited Michigan for a football game. I really hadn’t had too much conversation with the staff before the visit and they just had offered me. My takeaway from that visit was how great Coach Howard is. He is even better than you would expect and hear about him being. As a former NBA player, super-star, and part of arguably the most famous college basketball team of all time, you would expect him to be a touch stuck up and pretty much about his own business. That’s not how he is, at all. He is a great person, real likable, and genuinely nice to everybody. He cares about everybody in the community.”

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Ole Miss

“I went down for both a basketball and football game. I love the way Coach Davis and his staff run things. Coach Davis has been on me for a while, so getting to grow our relationship and see how he runs things was big on my visit.”

Overall Picture

Just a junior in high school, Perry’s recruitment is likely to extend at least through the summer and likely farther than that. With that said, the Kentucky staff has not been actively recruiting Perry as of late, which will likely push him to another school.

However, to make an offer, they had to have seen something. With time remaining, if the Wildcats commit to recruiting Perry he could team up with Reed Sheppard barring a jump to the NBA. With that said, at the moment, Michigan and Ole Miss are the perceived favorites, but Matt Painter and Purdue were recently seen at one of Perry’s games and look to make a push.

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BB Recruiting

Top 20 Prospect Taylen Kinney Set To Visit Kentucky

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James Weber | The Enquirer

Taylen Kinney, one of the top guards in the 2026 class and the No. 1 point guard in Kentucky, will take an official visit with the Wildcats beginning on June 24.

The Newport, Kentucky native has been inserted in a bit of a bidding war with Louisville and other premier schools after his official visit with the Cardinals, but of course the true recruiting powerhouse had to cast a line in hope of a bite.

KSR’s Jack Pilgrim caught a video of Kinney working with Mark Pope one-on-one on the morning of June 17 at the USA U19 Training Camp in Colorado Springs.

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A picture of Kinney, along with Malachi Moreno and Jasper Johnson, two of Kentucky’s incoming freshman on this year’s squad, came out of the camp. Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 player in the class of 2026, who already took a visit to Kentucky recently, was also shown in the picture. All four players are Kentucky natives.

Kinney is a priority for Kentucky, and Pope planting the idea of being a Wildcat in his mind this past weekend certainly builds the hype of his commitment being a future reality.

However, we can’t act like Pat Kelsey hasn’t already beat Pope to the punch, and it may be too late to change Kinney’s mind on being a Cardinal.

“I probably talk to coach Kelsey twice a week,” Kinney said. “He talks to my parents multiple times a week. I talk to the whole staff all of the time.”

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He later added on some words that no Wildcat fan would want to hear.

“They (Louisville’s staff) just told me that I was their guy,” Kinney said. “I fit perfectly into their system, and there’s no other school that I fit better into than them.

A common member of Big Blue Nation would likely think “yeah alright, wait until you get that Kentucky treatment,” and with the climate of today’s recruiting trail, who knows what can happen.

It will likely be a long time before the star guard makes an official decision, but who doesn’t like a good back-and-forth between two rival programs. The bell has already rung, and round one goes to the Cardinals, but the Wildcats are coming out swinging for round two.

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No. 1 Ranked Recruit Takes Official Visit to Kentucky

The top-ranked recruit in the nation, Tyran Stokes, took his official visit to Kentucky following a prior delay.

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Tyran Stokes takes his official visit to Kentucky.
Mark J. Rebilas | Imagn Images

Being from Louisville doesn’t necessarily make you a cardinal, and Mark Pope has set out to prove that in the biggest possible way.

The top-ranked overall recruit in next year’s class, Tyran Stokes, officially took a visit to Lexington on Sunday, June 8. This comes in lieu of many rumors that he’d canceled his visit altogether due to frustration with fans trying to dig for information online.

Last month in a cryptic post on X, Stokes said, “Why can’t y’all give a kid some privacy”. As curious as that was, especially given the proximity to his originally planned visit to Kentucky, it seems that the true issue had no bearing on his choice to hear Coach Pope’s plea. 

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And, as Kentucky fans now know, sometimes that’s all it takes to get a guy in blue and white.

The Louisville native, at 6’7, 230, has become widely renowned for his strong slashing ability as a multi-threat scorer on the wing. Stokes is the sort of player that, nobody who you already have on your team, you make room for him. He’s got an intangible build made for the big leagues, and he’s not even out of high school yet.

Stokes is the kind of guy that’d have NBA scouts sitting court side in Rupp Arena. While that level of national buzz isn’t always a good thing, it’s hard to underscore the possibility, and excitement, of the top recruit in the nation committing to the Cats come 2026.

In the very least, Kentucky is in the race, alongside Kansas and Louisville as heavy pursuers. It’s never too early to look ahead, and, as usual, Pope and staff are doing just that with the biggest names in the game.

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Kentucky Earns Commitment From European Big Andrija Jelavic

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ABA League j.t.d./Dragana Stjepanovic

Earlier today, Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats received the commitment from Andrija Jelavic, a 6-foot-11 big from Croatia.

As first reported by ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, Jelavic is one of the most highly regarded European prospects that is taking his talent to the NCAA.

Soon to be 21 years old, Jelavic averaged 10.8 points per game on 60% shooting from the field to go along with 7.4 rebounds per game for Mega Superbet, the same club that NBA Champion and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic played for.

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As a shock to most, who were expecting Pope’s next commit to be a guard of some sorts, international players can now sign lucrative NIL deals. Kentucky, along with several of the elite colleges, are now in the European market. 

Jelavic, with shades of current European big men, can do just about everything on the court. He can shoot, dribble, pass, finish at the rim, etc. With a very relevant comparison, Jelavic plays almost perfectly in the replacement role of Andrew Carr. 

His commitment now makes him the fifth member of Pope’s additions this offseason, joining Kam Williams, Jaland Lowe, Mouhamed Dioubate and Jayden Quaintance. 

With a 7’2” wingspan, joining an already impressive Kentucky frontcourt, it’s safe to say for certain that this new team will not lack in that department. 

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Next year’s roster was loaded with talent already, but now with the addition of Jelavic, lots of questions are arising: Who will start? How many more players is Pope going to add? What will happen with the walk-ons? 

There’s plenty to think about for Pope and his staff before the season starts, but like he said back when he introduced himself to Big Blue Nation, “We’re here to win banners.” He’s going to make the moves he thinks will do just that for the Wildcats. 

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