Mark Pope and Kentucky are not wasting any time getting offers out for the 2026 class. Kentucky just managed to land the number one player in the state for 2025 in Malachi Moreno, now they have their eyes set on Taylen Kinney as well.
This afternoon Kinney announced on social media that Mark Pope had extended him a scholarship to play at Kentucky.
Kinney is a 6’3″ guard out of Newport, Kentucky. He was playing high school ball for Newport High School but recently announced his decision to transfer to Overtime Elite. Tay Kinney plans to spend his final two seasons of high school basketball there. If you remember, this is the same league that produced Rob Dillingham before playing in Lexington.
The local star is a consensus top-50 recruit in the 2026 class. He is ranked 49th by On3, 33rd by Rivals, 28th at ESPN, and 26th by 247 Sports. Kentucky wasn’t the first to jump on the Taylen Kinney lottery, though. He holds several scholarship offers from other schools such as Louisville, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Purdue, Illinois, Xavier, Ohio State, Arizona State, LSU, Villanova, and Oregon, among others.
Mark Pope wasn’t the first to the party on this one but has definitely let it be known that he is definitely interested. For now, enjoy some film from the junior out of northern Kentucky.
Leave a Reply