Kentucky has historically dominated Louisville on the basketball court, and the Cardinals have just one win over the Wildcats since Rick Pitino’s final year in 2017. However, the rivalry looks intent on heating up with Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey both injecting new life into their respective programs after taking over last offseason.
Kentucky made its way back to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019, while Louisville ended an NCAA Tournament appearance drought that spanned the same length. Everything is building towards an electric season-opener on November 11 in Louisville, but the battle for Bluegrass State supremacy is already being waged on the recruiting trail over 2026 No. 1 recruit and Louisville native Tyran Stokes.
5⭐️ Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 ranked player in the 2026 class, is currently on an official visit to Kentucky, source told @On3Recruits.
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) June 8, 2025
The 6-foot-7 small forward is a Louisville, KY native.https://t.co/f39DgH604K pic.twitter.com/JRtlvq1jcl
Tyran Stokes takes weekend official visit to Kentucky
Both Kelsey and Pope constructed their 2024-25 rosters primarily through the transfer portal. Kentucky became the first team to make the Sweet 16 with zero returning players from the prior year, and Louisville leaned on veterans like Chucky Hepburn and Terrence Edwards Jr. to lead their 19-win improvement. So, it’s not surprising that both coaches plunged back into the portal headfirst this offseason, improving massively upon their rosters with multiple additions.
Yet, unlike Pitino, who has led both programs to a national championship and is now completely uninterested in high school recruiting as he looks to guide St. John’s to the promised land, Pope and Kelsey are taking big swings at high-profile recruits. Louisville’s four-player 2025 high school class is headlined by five-star point guard Mikel Brown Jr., almost an obvious one-and-done candidate, while Kentucky’s four-player class ranks No. 4 in the country with in-state star Malachi Moreno.
It’s no longer viable to build the one-and-done superteams of John Calipari and Mike Krzyzewski’s heyday in the mid-2010s, but ignoring the high school ranks when NIL has once again made college the best option for NBA hopefuls in their gap year between high school and a professional career, would be a fool’s errand. Especially when the No. 1 player in the country and likely No. 1 pick in the 2027 class is right under both head coaches’ noses.
Stokes has previously taken an official visit to Louisville, but the Wildcats appear to be gaining momentum after his trip to Lexington this weekend. Kansas is also in the mix for the 6-foot-7, 245-pound small forward who plays his high school ball at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California.
Stokes is a smooth-downhill attacker with an impressive array of dunks and layups to finish through contact at the rim. His tight handle allows him to get to his shot, and though he has a bit of a slow release on his jumper, he’s comfortable from beyond the three-point arc. If he’s not quite a Cooper Flagg level phenom, he’s the next best thing, a clear No. 1 player in a talented 2026 high school class.
Why landing Tyran Stokes would be transformational for Louisville
For Kentucky, landing Stokes would ensure a rabid fanbase with high standards that their beloved head coach, who arrived from BYU best known for his free-flowing motion offense, can more than hold his own as a recruiter, and Stokes would be just another in a long-line of top overall players to spend more than half of his lone collegiate season playing at Rupp Arena. For Louisville and Pat Kelsey, landing Stokes would be borderline transformational, cementing the Cardinals as a national powerhouse and finally punching back at the program that has long dominated the state.
Brown, Kelsey’s 2025 five-star point guard, is already the second-highest ranked recruit in program history. Stokes would easily surpass him and Samardo Samuels for the top spot. And more importantly, for the first time since Pitino’s national title in 2013, Louisville would surpass UK as Kentucky’s preeminent basketball program, led by a Louisville local.
Kentucky and Kansas are circling Stokes, and almost every time, the traditional blue bloods win out on the recruiting trail, but Kelsey must pull out all the stops to send a message to Pope and reignite the great rivalry. Kelsey and Pope are racing to establish themselves as the next coaching greats at historic programs, and Stokes could determine which coach brings a title to the Bluegrass State first.