Justin McBride's Commitment to Kentucky Gets Overshadowed by Tyran Stokes Whiff

The Wildcats landed a recruit on Tuesday night but not the prospect they were hoping for

Nevada’s Justin McBride shoots while taking on Colorado State at Lawlor Events Center in Reno on Dec. 21, 2024. | JASON BEAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Kentucky basketball program landed a commitment from a player on Tuesday night, but it just wasn’t the player Big Blue Nation was hoping for.

Shortly before Tyran Stokes announced his commitment to Kansas over the Wildcats, James Madison transfer Justin McBride pledged his allegiance to Kentucky after visiting the program last week.

McBride will be on his fourth program in four years after making stops at Oklahoma State, Nevada, and James Madsion. He never made a major impact at his previous two stops before starting 30 games for the Dukes and averaged 15.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game on 49.4-percent shooting from the field and 40-percent from 3-point range.

He posted just 2.5 points in 24 games with the Cowboys and 7.8 points in 33 games with Nevada.

Justin McBride joins Washington guard Zoom Diallo and Furman guard Alex Wilkins in the Kentucky transfer portal class while the Wildcats also landed European professional Ousmane N’Diaye last week.

Kentucky was also able to retain Kam Williams, Malachi Moreno, Braydon Hawthorne, Trent Noah, and Reece Potter from its current roster.

It’s a roster that is slowly coming together, and could be strong in the frontcourt, as head coach continues to hit the recruiting trail hard despite the noise and criticism around him with a trip overseas to potentially add to his program.

Kentucky is coming off of a season in which it struggled with injuries and finished in tied for seventh in the SEC. In fact, it’s the second straight seventh place finish for the Wildcats in the conference under Mark Pope, its worst finish under the current iteration of the league in back-to-back seasons.

However, the Wildcats did make the NCAA Tournament in both years under Pope after its Sweet 16 appearance last year and getting bounced in the Round of 32 this season.