A Kentucky boys hoops star is becoming one of the nation’s hottest 2026 recruits

Fast-break points from the lazy, hazy:

21. Taylen Kinney. The recruiting stock of the 6-foot, Newport High School junior-to-be keeps rising.

20. Five big-time offers last week. While playing on the Adidas 3SSB summer circuit for the Wildcat Select program, Kinney added scholarship offers from Villanova, Oregon, Michigan, LSU and Arizona State.

19. Previously held big offers. Prior to last week, Kinney already held scholarship opportunities from Cincinnati, Illinois, Indiana, Louisville, Notre Dame, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Xavier, among others.

18. All-State as a sophomore. Last year for Newport, Kinney averaged 17.5 points and four rebounds while shooting 48.4 percent on field-goal tries and 41.4 percent on 3-pointers. He made Courier Journal First Team All-State and was a Herald-Leader Second Team All-State selection.

17. An upset of Lyon County. Kinney had a team-high 14 points to help Newport upset Lyon County 50-48 in the All “A” Classic last season. Led by incoming Kentucky Wildcats freshman Travis Perry, Lyon County, of course, went on to win the overall Kentucky state championship.

16. Sweet 16 heartache. Newport’s chances of potentially facing Lyon County again for the state title were compromised when Kinney suffered a hamstring injury in the 9th Region Tournament. In what became a 43-40 Newport loss to Campbell County in the state tournament’s opening round at Rupp Arena, he was limited to five minutes of playing time.

15. Will UK offer? Kentucky coaches Mark Pope, Jason Hart and Cody Fueger watched Kinney play in Rock Hill, S.C., last week. Afterward, Kinney told KSR.com’s Zack Geoghegan the plan was for him to soon visit UK.

Stay tuned.

14. UK draftees in NBA Summer League play. Through the minuscule sample size of two games each, it has been a mixed verdict for the three former Kentucky Wildcats men’s hoopsters who were chosen in the 2024 NBA draft.

13. Reed Sheppard. The ex-North Laurel High School star has been the talk of the NBA Summer League so far for the Houston Rockets.

12. Crazy-good numbers. While playing 31 minutes a game, Sheppard, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NBA draft is averaging 22.5 points, five rebounds, six assists, two blocks and three steals a contest. He is making 56.3 percent of his shots and 45.5 percent of his 3-point attempts.

11. Rob Dillingham. There has been good and bad so far for the other one-and-done Kentucky freshman guard taken in the first round of the 2024 draft.

10. Errant shooting. Dillingham, the No. 8 overall pick, leads the Minnesota Timberwolves summer league team with an average of 6.5 assists a game. However, Dillingham is making only 26.9 percent of his shots and 22.2 percent of his treys while averaging 9 points a game.

9. Antonio Reeves. The 47th overall pick in the 2024 draft, Reeves has yet to find his offensive comfort zone with the New Orleans Pelicans summer league team.

8. Not dialed in from “3.” Reeves is averaging 10.5 points and 2.5 rebounds in 19.7 minutes a game. Yet the player who made 44.7 percent of his 3-point shots last season for Kentucky is shooting only 12.5 percent on 3-point tries so far in the NBA Summer League.

7. The “new Memorial Coliseum.” First thing I noticed Friday when UK gave media members a tour of the ongoing $82 million renovation of the venerable on-campus basketball venue — which originally opened in December 1950, you will recall — was the ceiling.

6. No more water stains. Gone are the water stains of recent years that adorned the old, tired-looking gray ceiling. In is a new two-toned, blue-paneling look that is sharp. The new ceiling alone is a massive aesthetic improvement.

5. Kenny Brooks. Back in March, when Brooks was introduced as the new Kentucky women’s basketball coach, I asked the ex-Virginia Tech head man the impact that the renovation of Memorial Coliseum had on his decision to come to Lexington.

4. The decisive factor? “Not sure if I would be here” if not for the arena upgrades, Brooks said. “In this day and age it matters. It really does. It’s an arms race sometimes for facilities. You have to have something really nice to be able to lure (recruits) in.”

3. A recruiting obstacle. During Friday’s media tour of the Coliseum, UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart acknowledged that the condition of the “pre-upgrades Memorial” had been used against Kentucky by rival coaches.

2. Recruiting before the renovations. “I think a good number of folks used (the condition of the building) against us in recruiting,” Barnhart says. “(Rival recruiters said) ‘You are playing in that place that is really bad.’”

1. Recruiting after the renovations. “You come into this, it’s beautiful,” Barnhart says of the “new and improved” Memorial Coliseum. “From a recruiting perspective, this is certainly a big deal for us.”

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