Mark Pope was in to watch a critical 2026 five-star recruit at Adidas 3SSB

There have been some interesting things happen with Kentucky's 2026 recruiting class over the last few weeks, as things have seemingly fallen off the map with Jason Crowe Jr. It looks like Crowe Jr. is heading to Missouri, so Mark Pope and his staff need to start looking elsewhere for guards in this class.

One player that the coaching staff is making a hard push after is Tay Kinney. Currently, Kinney plays for Overtime Elite, but he is a Newport, Kentucky native.

Coach Pope is currently at the Adidas 3SSB camp along with John Calipari, Darian DeVries, and Sean Miller to watch Kinney.

Right now, some see Louisville as the frontrunner to land Kinney, but Pope is going to make a push to land the Kentucky native.

Coach Pope, over the last few months, has had a lot of opportunities to build a relationship with Kinney, and hopefully, this will help the Wildcats land this elite five-star recruit.

Kinney is one of the best guards in the nation, so it won't be easy for Pope to land him, but the Wildcats' coach has done great landing Kentucky in-state talent, and many believe this will continue.

Currently, Kinney has visits planned to Texas and Indiana. He has already taken visits to Kentucky and Louisville, so the elite guard is likely getting a little bit closer to a decision.

Kentucky fans would love to see Coach Pope win this tough recruiting battle for one of the best guards in the entire 2026 class.