PG Kinney, No. 17 hoops recruit, picks Jayhawks

Five-star elder Taylen Kinney, the No. 4 constituent defender successful the 2026 SportsCenter NEXT rankings, announced his committedness to the Kansas Jayhawks connected Sunday.

Kinney besides had Louisville, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky and Oregon connected his last list. He took visits to each six of his finalists, and it was an August travel to Kansas that appeared to alteration the momentum of his recruitment toward the Jayhawks, who were perceived to beryllium moving down Louisville during astir of the summer.

"It felt similar household from the clip I got determination until I left," Kinney told ESPN. "We did truthful much. Saw the school, facilities, and dinners. We went implicit my film, some the bully clips and the atrocious clips. The fans astatine the shot crippled were great. As soon arsenic I walked successful the stadium, they knew who I was."

Kinney developed beardown relationships with manager Bill Self and caller adjunct manager Jacque Vaughn, the erstwhile Kansas prima and two-time NBA caput manager who was hired to Self's unit backmost successful May.

"Bill Self is simply a winner," Kinney said. "He has developed professionals. He is truthful, kindhearted and down to earth. He is hard connected his guys and bully to them disconnected the court. ... It volition beryllium large to larn from [Vaughn]. He kept it real."

A 6-foot-3 constituent defender from Kentucky who plays for the Overtime Elite program, Kinney is No. 17 wide successful the 2026 SportsCenter NEXT rankings -- and the No. 4 constituent defender successful the country. He continues to make arsenic a playmaker, balancing his quality to people with mounting up his teammates.

Kinney is an assertive and shifty operator who shows burst erstwhile attacking the paint. He has earthy instincts successful modulation but has the shot skills and footwork to make separation erstwhile the crippled slows down successful the halfcourt. Kinney has bully scope connected his perimeter changeable but besides has an effectual floater erstwhile helium gets adjacent to the rim.

He averaged 20.1 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists for RWE connected the Overtime Elite circuit past season, shooting 65% wrong the arc and 33.3% from 3. He continued his stellar play connected the Adidas 3SSB circuit successful the outpouring and summer, putting up 18.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists for Wildcat Select.

Kinney is Kansas' archetypal committedness successful the 2026 people and marks the 2nd consecutive radical that has featured a five-star constituent defender aft Self landed imaginable No. 1 NBA draught prime Darryn Peterson successful the 2025 class. The Jayhawks are besides successful a beardown presumption for top-50 imaginable Davion Adkins, who could beryllium nearing a decision, and they're hosting Ethan Taylor, the No. 3 center, for a sojourn this weekend.