Mark Pope and his staff have started to narrow down their big board for recruits in the class of 2026 as they look to make some noise in the high school ranks once again.
We have heard plenty surrounding No. 1 overall player Tyran Stokes, but it appears that the staff is starting to hone in on their top target at the point guard position.
Deron Rippey, a 5-star point guard out of New Jersey, is a name that should be very familiar to the BBN, and that is only going to continue.
With an official visit
on deck for the first part of October, Rippey’s father, Deron Sr., spoke with Adam Zagoria of Zags Blog and made sure to let it be known that the Cats are “all in” on landing his son.
“They’re all in on Ron Ron! They want him to come and be the point guard,” Rippey Sr. said.
Add that in with Rippey getting to see how Coach Pope coaches at the USA U19 camp, and it’s clear Kentucky is a strong contender in this recruitment.
Rippey recently cut his list down to 12 schools that includes UK alongside North Carolina, Alabama, Duke, Louisville, Indiana, Kansas, Tennessee, North Carolina State, Miami, Texas, and Syracuse.
After playing on the 3SSB Adidas circuit for AAU, there is plenty of speculation that he might end up going to a school associated with the three stripes. It’ll be interesting to see if Coach Pope and his staff can pull this off.
