Kentucky's Mark Pope, Jason Hart extend offer to 2026 5-star Caleb Holt

Mark Pope is slowly beginning to make waves in the 2026 recruiting class. Kentucky has sent out another offer to a rising high school junior.

This time, it’s five-star Caleb Holt out of Loganville (GA) Grayson, who announced a scholarship from the Wildcats on Thursday night. Holt is the third 2026 prospect to publicly announce an offer from Kentucky, joining five-star Tyran Stokes and four-star Miika Murrienen, the latter picking up his offer earlier this week.

Holt, a 6-foot-5, 185-pound shooting guard, is considered the No. 3 overall recruit in the 2026 cycle, per the On3 Industry Ranking.

Blessed to receive an offer from The University Of Kentucky 💙 #gowildcats pic.twitter.com/NkkWsV1Ymd

— Caleb Holt (@iamcalebholt) July 26, 2024

Named Alabama’s Gatorade Player of the Year for the 2023-24 season, Holt recently transferred high schools and will spend his junior season at Grayson in Georgia. He averaged 20.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, three steals, and 2.4 assists per game for Buckhorn (AL) in ’23-24 en route to a second straight state championship.

Since his sophomore season wrapped up, Holt has won a gold medal for Team USA in the FIBA U17 World Cup and was one of the best players on the adidas 3SSB circuit for Game Elite 17U. Across seven games with Team USA, he averaged 11.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.9 steals in 16.4 minutes per outing. He then played up a year for Game Elite and was a constant standout performer.

Pope watched Holt play multiple times over the last couple of months with Team USA and on the 3SSB circuit. Assistant coach Jason Hart has been in contact the most so far. Holt and Hart had a relationship when the latter was coaching the G League Ignite.

“I know he’s a good coach,” Holt told KSR about his knowledge of Pope. “I really don’t know too much about him, he came from BYU and I didn’t really watch BYU. But I know he went to Kentucky back in the day. I don’t know too much but I know a little about him.”

Pope and Hart both hopped on a phone call with Holt to extend him the offer, talking about his impressive summer and what they like about his game.

As of right now, Holt does not have any visits scheduled for the summer/fall. However, he says he’d like to visit all of the schools that have offered him. Along with Kentucky, the likes of North Carolina, Kansas, Louisville, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Houston, and several more have also reached out with scholarships.

Here’s what KSR’s Brandon Ramsey wrote about Holt’s game after watching him at the adidas 3SSB Palmetto Road Championship earlier this month:

“Simply watching warmups is enough to understand why Holt is considered a Top 5 prospect in the Class of 2026. He has all of the physical and athletic tools you could ask for in a two-way guard. Then, you see him play, and it just gets even more impressive.

“Fresh off of winning a gold medal with the USA Basketball U17 team, Holt came to Rock Hill and stood out. After getting his feet wet on Thursday, Holt scored 20 points in a win on Friday and then went off for 26 points and 13 rebounds in an incredibly impressive performance on Saturday. He is very strong off of the dribble, rises up smoothly to score in the mid-range, and plays through contact effortlessly to finish at the rim. Rebounds very well from the guard spot. Projects as a high-level two-way guard/wing.”