Fresh off the first live recruiting period of the offseason, Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats have extended their first scholarship offer of the 2028 class.

Yann Kamagate, a prospect who went from unranked to the top five in 247Sports’ most recent recruiting rankings, received an offer from the Wildcats, he confirmed to KY Insider on Monday.

“Not everyone gets the chance to be seen by greatness,” Kamagate told KY Insider. “I’m grateful for the offer from Kentucky.”

Kentucky assistant coach Mikhail McLean, who works with the Wildcats’ big men and their development, watched Kamagate first-hand this past weekend in the Adidas 3SSB circuit in Mishawaka, Indiana.

The 7-foot big man was the talk of the weekend, displaying a high motor, extreme athleticism — a reported 7-9 winspam — and great feel for the game. On the circuit, he is averaging 13.9 points, a circuit-leading 10.4 rebounds, and 2.9 blocks per game.

Originally from the West African country of Burkina Faso, Kamagate moved to the United States just a year ago and has only been playing basketball for three years. Now, he is challenging for the top spot in the 2028 class.

He is currently represented by former NBA player and UCLA star Luc Mbah a Moute. Which is relevant as he is currently playing for the California Adidas team, Compton Magic, and attends La Cañada Flintridge (Calif.) St. Francis.

The offer is the latest signal that Mark Pope’s staff is casting a wide and aggressive net this offseason, and targeting players whose trajectories are trending sharply upward. Kamagate fits that profile exactly.

The prime of summer is right around the corner, and that means that La Familia will grace the Big Blue Nation’s eyes as they wait for the college football and the 2026-27 basketball seasons to begin. Backed by a roster of Kentucky alumni, general manager Twany Beckham will look to pack Historic Memorial Coliseum and go far in The Basketball Tournament (TBT) come July.

In an exclusive interview with KY Insider, Beckham opened up on a plethora of topics, starting first with his love for the fanbase and everyone who has showed out for La Familia.

“I’m very appreciative and thankful for the support that this community has given us, and to see where it’s grown in year three is awesome,” said Beckham. “There was no blueprint on how to grow it, on how to recruit guys and how to convince guys to come back and play…so to see where it’s gone and to see the level of excitement that we have had the past two summers has been awesome.”

Beckham jumped into some potential names joining this year’s roster, one being a beloved paint-beast forward from my younger years that the GM wanted to remain nameless until officially announced. He mentioned that he reached out to multiple G-League players, but due to their obligations at the professional level, the schedules couldn’t align.

I asked the former Wildcat if he anticipated to scrimmage the 2026-27 men’s basketball team, like previous seasons, and the optimism for it to happen yet again is there.

“We haven’t had any conversations around that yet, which I’m sure we will,” said Beckham. “If we do, that’s something that I’d definitely be looking forward to doing again…that’s awesome too, you know, you get to see the team up close and personal and then allow the current team to kind of jive and mesh with former players. Hopefully we’re allowed to do that again.”

Shifting to how the returning players feel about last year’s elimination, and with an assumption that former Wildcats such as Willie Cauley-Stein, Aaron Harrison and Andrew Harrison will be back on this year’s team, Beckham opened up on the conversations he’s had thus far with some of them and it’s been revealed to him how much they care about Kentucky basketball.

“Guys have expressed, even last year when we lost, returning guys were like ‘Hell yeah, I’m coming back,’” said Beckham. “It was good to hear that the guys really take it seriously and are extremely competitive. We got several guys coming back that are excited and that kind of want to get that revenge.”

A new development taking place was discussed next, with a round-robin series between The Ville, Louisville’s TBT team, and La Familia taking place to open the season. The first game will be played on July 18 at Kentucky, with the second taking place at Louisville on July 20.

Game three will be decided ultimately by ticket sales, with the fanbase whose home court produces the most overall amount of tickets gaining home-court advantage. Beckham stressed that BBN will have only 24 hours upon announcement to reserve their spot at Historic Memorial Coliseum.

With emphasis, it’s important for the home feel and for fans that even if you’re a Kentucky supporter in Louisville or vice versa that you attend your favorite team’s home event so that they can be credited with the ticket sale.

I asked Beckham some fun questions to close out the interview, one being if there was a player they tried reaching out to but couldn’t get it to work – he named Kentucky great John Wall.

“Sometimes it’s kind of tough to make it work,” said Beckham. “He’s who everybody always writes us in the comments, and I just want people to know that year in and year out we are trying.”

I asked him if he could create his own La Familia starting lineup with no restrictions, meaning current NBA players or retired legends could play together and he listed the following:

Point Guard: John Wall, Shooting Guard: Derek Anderson, Small Forward: Tayshaun Prince, Power Forward: Anthony Davis, Center: DeMarcus Cousins

Certainly would be a killer lineup by any means, but Beckham’s closing comments showed how important it is for the guys who do take time out of their schedule to do this every summer.

“I’m very appreciative of the guys that do commit, because it’s a commitment,” said Beckham. “It’s three weeks away from these guys’ families, most of the guys are still playing so this cuts in their break, so I’m thankful for the guys that we are able to get to commit and come to play.”

La Familia opens up the season with a game against The Ville on July 18 at Historic Memorial Coliseum, so go buy those tickets BBN!

Kentucky has made contact with Russian big man Gleb Firsov this week, according to a source.

The timing is no coincidence. With Malachi Moreno still going through the NBA Draft process and his return to Lexington not yet announced, Mark Pope and the staff are doing what a smart program should do: evaluating their options.

If Moreno withdraws before the deadline and returns, Firsov could remain a target worth monitoring. If Moreno stays in the draft, Kentucky’s need for frontcourt size becomes immediate and urgent.

Firsov is a name that has been gaining traction in European basketball circles and has been contacted by other high-major programs such as Alabama and Arkansas. A big man with size and skill, he represents exactly the kind of international prospect that college programs are becoming increasingly interested in.

The 6-10 big players for Parma Perm, a professional basketball team based in Perm, Russia, that is part of the VTB United League, the top league in Russia.

To provide context of the competition he is playing against, No Ceilings, an outlet that specializes in the NBA Draft and global scouting, ranked the VTB United League as the 27th best basketball league in the world. In the same ranking, the SEC was ranked 25th.

This past season, Firsov has averaged 10.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks, on just a little more than 18 minutes per game and 58 percent shooting. He also set a league record 46 performance index rating (PIR) in a game earlier this season, where he scored 33 points.