Our long national… well, not really a nightmare, more that weird dream that doesn’t seem to end, anyway whatever, it’s over. Tyran Stokes has made his college decision official. It is not Kentucky. It’s the other school that felt like a serious player in this recruitment all along: Kansas.
Good for Bill Self, remarkably bad for Mark Pope.
Kansas already had a 5-star signee in Taylen Kinney, one of the top point guards in the class of 2026. Not just that, the Jayhawks had three other signees, so Stokes
makes that five. Self could, feasibly, build a positionally sound lineup out of only his five high school signees, all but one of whom is ranked in the top-100 in 247Sports’ recruiting rankings.
Kentucky had, uh, none of that. The Wildcats’ lone commitment, strange as that may sound, is a 4-star point guard ranked outside the top-100 in both 247Sports and On3/Rivals’ rankings. While Self kept adding players, it seemed Pope banked unreal amounts of time, effort and recruiting resources on Stokes and Stokes alone.
Oregon was also listed as a finalist but, like, c’mon.
Will Indiana be in play for players of Stokes’ caliber anytime in the near future? Maybe. Darian DeVries is starting out with high-major caliber talent to develop rather than going after ready-made future NBA Draft lottery picks right away.
Is that the right way to build a program? Well, there is no one right way anymore especially given how Dusty May built Michigan last offseason. John Calipari is still rolling with talented freshmen and Matt Painter wins as much as anyone without any 5-stars to be seen. But it’s a way that can work and gives you a class of players to fall back on should you miss on top targets, which is what’s happened to Pope.
Anyway, there’s your relevant college basketball news for the da- oh
Oh NO.
Join the conversation!
Sign up for a user account and get:
- Improved notifications system!
- Fewer ads
- Create community posts
- Comment on articles, community posts
- Rec comments, community posts
