As the summer begins coming to a close, many recruits in the 2025 class are about to start making moves in their recruitments and that is certainly the case for Trey McKenney, the No. 16 overall recruit in the country.
The 6-foot-4, 225-pound shooting guard out of Flint (Mich.) St. Mary’s has been a coveted recruit around the country but now he is nearing a list-cut and is beginning to schedule visits for his senior year.
The four-star guard discussed those in pursuit and who is already planning trips to, giving us a glimpse into who will be making his finalists in the weeks ahead.
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Mark Stoops responds to handful of hot button questions
Stoops answered some of the hot button questions in Dallas Thursday.
Aaron Gershon
DALLAS – Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops closed the door at SEC Media Days Thursday as he was the last of the conference’s 16 coaches to take the main stage at Dallas’ Omni Hotel but he wasn’t quite able to avoid some hot-button questions.
Stoops was asked about the rumors that swirled in the 12 hours following UK’s Nov. 25 win over No. 10 Louisville linking him to the head coaching position at Texas A&M that, per multiple reports, he had accepted but by 1:00 a.m. local time on Nov. 26, he had taken to social media to announce he’d be staying in Lexington and the Aggies later Sunday hired Mike Elko as its new head coach.
“I was pursued pretty aggressively by them and we’ll just leave it at that out of respect for everybody involved,” Stoops said. “There’s a lot of people over the years, a lot of interactions between people but it was very brief. I was pursued and I had a job to do.
“There’s only been 19 coaches in the history of the SEC that have been 12 years with their institution. I’m proud to be a member of that group. I’ve been grinding at Kentucky for a long time and am very proud of that and want to continue to do that.”
While Stoops didn’t get into the weeds of his discussions with Texas A&M, his superstar defensive tackle admitted it was a stressful night but also vouched for his head coach, whose loyalty to Kentucky was questioned following his reported flirtation with the Aggies.
“I remember scrolling down my Instagram; there was something on my Instagram about him talking about taking it, and then the very next thing I saw, it said that he accepted it,” Deone Walker recalled. “I called him and asked him and he was like, he hadn’t really taken anything yet and I’m like, coach, ‘could you please just tell me so that I can get my stuff in order.’ He’s like, ‘I told you ever since you got here, I’m loyal to you. I’m loyal to ya’ll and told me that he was gonna stay.’ so, transferring wasn’t even in my wavelength. That showed me how loyal he is to me, our university and to our team.
“It was a bad time, to say the least.”
He was also asked about the departure of basketball coach John Calipari.
The upcoming season will be the first in Stoops’ tenure in Lexington that Calipari won’t be serving as UK’s head basketball coach as Mark Pope was hired to replace the 65-year-old Calipari, who left to become the head coach at Arkansas.
While Stoops and Calipari made several public appearances together throughout the year, the two had not been seen in public since a feud in 2022 after Calipari deemed Kentucky “a basketball school and hoping Kentucky would continue to “go to bowls and win 10 games” and Stoops responded by saying, “When you start talking about my program and others that we compete against — me, I don’t do that,” Stoops said. “I stay in my lane. So that’s in defense of my players, in defense of the work that we’ve done. And believe me, we want to continue to push. But don’t demean or distract from the hard work and the dedication and the commitment that people have done to get to this point. I don’t need to apologize for that, and I won’t.”
Stoops was all class talking about Calipari’s departure Thursday.
“I wish the best for him. He and I had a really good relationship for a long time. There was one little blip on there, but we’re both big boys,” Stoops said. “We’re both friends and have spoken and he’ll be successful at Arkansas and wish him nothing but the best.
“As a matter of fact, his son, I just saw Brad [Calipari] in Lexington a couple of weeks ago; he was through recruiting or doing something and spent some time talking with him.”
While he touched on it, discussing his decision to stay at Kentucky rather than head to College Station, Stoops opened up more than ever about being the SEC’s longest-tenured coach. He’ll enter his 12th season in Lexington this fall and, with Nick Saban’s retirement, has surpassed the legendary coach to be the longest-tenured head coach in the conference.
“It’s an accomplishment by a lot of people. Our administration has been very supportive for a very long time. There are a lot of coaches who have come and gone, who have worked tirelessly to help put us in this position, and a lot of players who have dedicated a lot,” Stoops said. “I feel very fortunate, very blessed. I want to continue to succeed and like I said, I don’t look down on some of the things we’ve done.
“Coach Saban, I just want to recognize him by retiring. I’ve been in the league now for 12 years, and I’ve really enjoyed being around the coach and listening to him in meetings. A lot of people ask me, what or if I think that he’s overbearing or demanding in there. Don’t get me wrong, coach is passionate at times, but it was never about self-interest to me. He always was worried about college football. He was he was worried about the betterment of college football and making young people better. I truly believe that.”
Stoops wasn’t grilled to the extent many thought he might have been about Texas A&M and his 2022 feud with Calipari; the hot-button questions were addressed in Dallas, closing two major storylines he and the program are happy to put in the past.