Trey McKenney, a five-star recruit who is the top-ranked player in the state of Michigan, knows exactly what it is he wants out of the school he'll eventually commit to at some point during his senior season at Orchard Lake St. Mary's Prep in Flint. The question for those in Lexington is, do the Kentucky Wildcats fit that criteria?
“The big thing for me is going to be the relationship a school is able to develop with my family,” Trey McKenney said, according to Ezekiel Trezevant of SI.com. “I’ll look at where I’ll be able to grow best as a person and as a basketball player. I’m trying to achieve my goal of making it to the NBA. Also, a big thing for me is going to be winning at the college level. I want to win.”
Now in the past, in the John Calipari years, we knew exactly what the expectation was of any player of McKenney's caliber who committed to Kentucky. Show up in Lexington, compete for a National Title, leave after one year for the NBA Draft. And for all we know, with John Calipari at Arkansas and Mark Pope having taken over the Kentucky basketball program, that could be the way things remain. But for the time being, Mark Pope represents something of an unknown commodity for any high school recruit who has had dreams of playing for the Wildcats. But that isn't stopping Trey McKenney from dreaming.
Near the end of May, Mark Pope and a handful of coaches on his Kentucky staff were in Indianapolis to watch Trey McKenney and many other players who could potentially emerge as targets for the University of Kentucky, and after an impressive showing — 27 points in an 86-77 win — McKenney spoke with Kentucky Sports radio about what an offer from Mark Pope and the Wildcats would mean.
“It would mean a lot. I’ve been watching Kentucky since I was a kid growing up,” McKenney said. The entirety of McKenney's childhood coincided with the peak of the Coach Cal experience at Kentucky, yet Calipari and his staff were not recruiting McKenney during his tenure with the school.
“You never think Calipari would leave Kentucky. But Kentucky itself, even before Calipari they were a powerhouse,” McKenney said. “Kentucky is one of the biggest schools in college basketball, so having them talk to me is a blessing.”
Recently, Trey McKenney has been on one heck of a run. Back in March, McKenney led Orchard Lake to their first state championship since 2000. He also recently earned a spot on the 2024 USA Basketball Men’s U18 National Team. And now, with Kentucky seemingly in the mix for his services, McKenney will have his choice of over thirty prominent Division I programs who have interest in him. Given his proximity to East Lansing, Michigan State is considered the early favorite to nab McKenney, but considering how highly he spoke of Kentucky, it would be foolish to rule the Wildcats out of the race.
At Kentucky, there's hope in Mark Pope
At the time of the hiring of Mark Pope, the primary concern among Kentucky fans seemed to be that the Wildcats, who had perennially finished among the top-ranked recruiting classes in the country under John Calipari, would no longer be able to retain that status under Pope. However, even though Mark Pope has yet to make much of a splash in recruiting high schoolers to come to Lexington, he's proven to be a major player in the transfer portal.
In just under two months time, Mark Pope has helped to build a transfer portal class for Kentucky that is among the best in the country. Most recently, it was a former Mark Pope standout at BYU, Jaxson Robinson, who committed to play for the Wildcats during the 2024-25 season. But Robinson is simply the latest domino to fall. Pope and Kentucky have already nabbed seven other players who were starters during the 2023-24 season — Otega Oweh (Oklahoma), Koby Brea (Dayton), Lamont Butler (San Diego State), Brandon Garrison (Oklahoma State), Andrew Carr (Wake Forest), Amari Williams (Drexel) and Kerr Kriisa (West Virginia) — to fill out his first roster as the head coach of Kentucky.
It's a core that should theoretically allow the Wildcats to head to the Big Dance in 2025.
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