Two of the top recruits in the 2026 class are unlikely to land in Lexington.
There was a time Kentucky was seen as one of the top contenders for Caleb Holt.
That time appears to have passed.
For much of Holt’s recruitment, Alabama has been the favorite for the 5-star prospect, who is also a native of the state, though the Wildcats were thought to be making up a lot of ground and establishing themselves as the No. 2 school in this recruitment.
But in a recent recruiting update from On3’s Jamie Shaw, it was revealed that another Wildcat program is making a strong push for Holt: Arizona.
“Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd was Holt’s head coach this summer for the USA Basketball U19 World Cup. Alabama is the home state school for Holt, and I’m told he has a lot of familiarity with the program. At this point, those are the two schools that I am hearing about the most from my sources,“ Shaw wrote.
It also sounds like we’re not too far off from a decision date for Holt, who is ranked No. 4 overall in the country by Rivals and 247 Sports.
“Talking with Holt, and speaking with sources around the recruitment, it sounds like the current target date is around the March-April time frame,” Shaw said.
Seems as though unless something drastic happens, Kentucky is on the outside looking in for Holt.
In other recruiting news, fellow class of 2026 target Jordan Smith now appears to have a new leader in his recruitment.
While the Wildcats are still technically in the mix for Smith, they’ve never been viewed as one of the top contenders, and Duke was long considered the runaway favorite.
But in today’s world of NIL, recruitments can change on a dime (pun intended), and it appears that has happened with Smith.
Over at 247 Sports, three straight recruiting predictions were just logged in favor of Arkansas to land Smith, so it appears John Calipari is close to pulling off a major upset in the 2026 class.
Smith, ranked as high as No. 2 overall by 247 Sports, has long been viewed as a Duke lean, so the Hogs winning out would be quite the surprise.
It also leaves Kentucky fans to wonder when/if they’ll see the Wildcats land a high school prospect for next season.
Category: General Sports
