Early on in the 2026 recruiting cycle, Pat Kelsey’s Cardinals appeared to be positioned as a front-runner for No. 1 high school recruit and Louisville native, Tyran Stokes. However, the tide quickly began to turn, and Kansas emerged as the leader for both Stokes and five-star point guard Taylen Kinney, so Pat Kelsey pivoted, forgoing his pursuit of 2026 high school talent to load up in the Transfer Portal.
Louisville’s in-state rival, however, wasn’t so quick to catch on to Stokes’s obvious connection with Bill Self and the Jayhawks. So, while Louisville assembled one of the top transfer classes in the country, untethered by a drawn-out pursuit of high school talent, Mark Pope watched the portal dry up as he held his resources in reserve for a five-star who was never coming home.
On Tuesday, Stokes made it official, committing to Kansas over Kentucky. He even went so far as to say he was “trolling” Kentucky with his visit to Lexington while his deal was already signed with Kansas. It was a trap Kelsey was wise not to fall into, and it has Louisville positioned for in-state supremacy next season.
Pat Kelsey’s portal spending spree was the right way to build this offseason
Stokes will likely enter the year as a preseason All-American, but generally, the 2026 high school class pales in comparison to the overwhelming talent the 2025 crop provided college basketball. So, moving on from high school recruits to spend big in the portal was a wise strategy from Kelsey.
In some ways, Stokes made the decision for Louisville, but at the time the Cardinals fell out of the Stokes pursuit, Kentucky was viewed as a long shot as well. At least Louisville took the hint that Stokes was bound for Lawrence rather than deluding itself into believing that it had a shot, as Kentucky did.
Other factors impacted the recruiting process as well, like an NIL partnership with Nike that gave Kentucky a better shot to beat Adidas-backed Kansas than Adidas-backed Louisville. Still, it’s hard not to compare the two well-resourced programs in the same state that took very different paths in the offseason.
One waited around hoping Stokes would save them. The other embarked on a huge portal spending spree, landing Flory Bidunga, Jackson Shelstad, Karter Knox, Alvaro Folgueiras, De’Shayne Montomgery, and Gabe Dynes.
Kentucky has a decent portal class with Zoom Diallo and Alex Wilkins in the backcourt and Justin McBride as a stretch four. However, waiting on Stokes cost them their best shot at Robert Wright III, Donnie Freeman, and other targets they couldn’t outbid their competitors for because of the money held in reserve for Stokes.
Kelsey’s offseason has been a resounding success. That doesn’t guarantee that it will translate to title contention next season. But his decisiveness has the Cards in a much better spot than the Cats, and that hasn’t often been the case in recent years.
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