Kentucky men’s basketball is on a current run of in-state recruiting that hasn’t been seen in a generation.
What began with guard Reed Sheppard in the 2023 recruiting class now includes both guard Travis Perry and forward Trent Noah in the 2024 class, as well as guard Jasper Johnson and center Malachi Moreno in the 2025 class.
Spanning the end of John Calipari’s coaching tenure in Lexington and continuing into the Mark Pope coaching era, UK has returned to being the college basketball destination for talented natives of the commonwealth.
And the Wildcats are making an early effort to make sure this trend continues with the 2026 recruiting group.
One of the standout prospects to know from the group of eight recruits that Kentucky has offered in the 2026 class is Taylen Kinney, a 6-foot-1, 174-pound point guard.
A former standout at Newport High School in Northern Kentucky, Kinney led the Wildcats to appearances in the Sweet 16 state tournament in both 2023 and 2024.
Now, like many other talented recruits, Kinney has left home in pursuit of individual improvement.
Kinney is now at the Atlanta-based Overtime Elite (OTE) program, a 24-7 basketball destination that puts a priority on player development.
“It’s state of the art. You aren’t finding this anywhere else. Like, no high school. No prep school. Nowhere else,” Kinney told the Herald-Leader on Tuesday following OTE’s annual fall combine, which took place in front of about 90 college basketball coaches and NBA scouts, along with media members. “… Being able to compete and push myself every day in practice. I want to be pushed. I don’t want to have a bad day (in) practice, slacking, and then still be able to win and everything. If I’m slacking here, I’ll get killed.”
Before he left Kentucky, Kinney — who is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as a four-star recruit and the No. 27 overall prospect in the 2026 class — was considered one of the state’s best young players. Last season as a sophomore, Kinney was an all-state performer who averaged more than 17 points per game while shooting nearly 50% from the field and better than 41% on 3-pointers.
A hamstring injury limited what Kinney was able to do in his second state tournament trip with Newport, but the talented floor general took away plenty from his three seasons of Kentucky high school hoops. (Kinney also played varsity for Newport as an eighth grader).
“Becoming a leader,” Kinney said. “Being an inner-city school, not a lot of students there, and then turning the whole program and school around.”