2027 NBA Draft's No. 1 prospect Tyran Stokes looks the part in Kansas' win over his native Kentucky

Top NBA prospect Tyran Stokes dominates in Kansas' win over Kentucky

Tuesday night in the Champions Classic in Chicago, the two teams met, and Stokes starred in front of NBA scouts and executives during No. 15 Kansas' 89-69 win over the 24th-ranked Wildcats.

The 6-foot-8, 230-pound Stokes had 23 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists in the win, and said afterward it was an emotional night against the school that was the runner-up in his recruitment.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure everyone obviously knows. For me, it was up to Kansas and Kentucky for my last two schools," Stokes said, via Myron Medcalf of ESPN. "I'm from Louisville. I had a long recruiting process with Kentucky, so obviously when I chose Kansas, and I knew that game was going to be here, it was personal for sure. But we got the (win), played together great as a team. That's all that matters."

Heading into his freshman season, the one knock on Stokes was his shooting, especially from the three-point line.

Well, Stokes looked NBA-ready Tuesday. The likely one-and-done frosh shot 4-of-8 from downtown.

Tyran Stokes impresses Kansas coach Bill Self with his self-control

Kansas coach Bill Self knows how much Tuesday's game meant to Stokes, considering the hard-fought recruiting battle.

"I think that 'personal' means he's from Kentucky and they recruited him hard, so I don't think it was anything more than that, at least to my knowledge," coach Bill Self told reporters about Stokes' performance, via Medcalf. "But, I actually thought he handled the moment better than I actually anticipated. He's very emotional, which is a big, big plus. Nobody should take that as a negative, but I didn't want him to be too geeked up where he couldn't play. And what helped him a lot tonight was seeing that first three go down. And after that, I thought he played under control. I thought he played within what we're trying to do and still found a way to be aggressive at the same time. I thought it was pretty impressive."

NBA scouts, just like Kentucky coach Mark Pope, who missed out on Stokes' services, likely felt the same way.