NCAA Basketball Recruiting: 5 early teams in the mix for No. 1 class of 2026 G Brandon McCoy

Kentucky Wildcats

Kentucky is on the same level as Duke as an NCAA Basketball powerhouse with all of the prestige and spotlight. However, things may change going forward, with John Calipari off to Arkansas, replaced by Mark Pope of BYU. Like Mark Madsen, Coach Pope also has NBA connections and at BYU ran one of the friendlier offensive systems around.

Outside of incoming four-star freshman guard prospect Travis Perry, there aren’t any other ball-handlers on the future Wildcat roster. Even if they land a “one and done” star in the 2025 class, the backcourt should be wide open for someone like McCoy to take over as the next lead guard.

USC Trojans

Another local program in California after McCoy is USC, which is completely rebuilding under new HC, Eric Musselman. Due to how transfer-heavy his rosters tend to be in the portal era, it’s next to impossible to know who McCoy would play with in the future.

Still, while they don’t have the same kind of basketball history as rival UCLA, USC is still an appealing option for a star prospect, McCoy can stay in Los Angeles, and dominate the headlines and Coach Musselman also has good offensive systems to run.