Kentucky falling behind in the race for Jason Crowe Jr. means Mark Pope can go all in on another five-star

Things are heating up for Mark Pope and the Kentucky coaching staff in the 2026 recruiting class as they look to bring in an elite class. Kentucky doesn't currently have any commits in the 2026 class, but the staff is zeroing in on some targets.

One name that has been floating around in this class for a while is Jason Crowe Jr., but Big Blue Nation received some rough news on Sunday as Joe Tipton of On3 reported that Missouri is now in the lead for the five-star guard.

A decision is coming on July 18th for Crowe Jr. and while Pope and this staff won't back down it sounds like this will be a come from behind effort.

If Crowe Jr. does end up picking Missouri, the guard Kentucky needs to go all in after is Tay Kinney. Currently, Kinney plays for OTE, but he is a Newport, Kentucky native. Kinney has taken visits to Kentucky and Louisville and today set up visits to Texas and Indiana.

Many believe this will end up being a Kentucky vs. Louisville race for the five-star point guard. Pope has done a good job during his tenure to this point, landing the in-state Kentucky talent, and he would love to keep that trend going by landing Kinney.

While the race for Crowe Jr. is not over, Kentucky is behind, and if he does not pick the Wildcats on the 18th, Pope needs to do everything in his power to land Tay Kinney as the point guard of the future.