Tyran Stokes, the No. 1-ranked five-star recruit in the high school class of 2026, has finally announced where he is heading to for college, with several notable figures in the sport reacting.
On Tuesday, Stokes announced on the “Inside The NBA” show, which had former NBA standout Kenny Smith present, that he has committed to play for the Kansas Jayhawks come the 2026-27 campaign.
BYU Cougars forward and one of the projected top picks in the 2026 NBA Draft, AJ Dybantsa, went over his social media account to react to Stokes’ commitment.
On his Instagram story, Dybantsa reposted @br_hoops’s post with a hyped-up three-word caption meant to support Stokes in his decision.
“Pop it twin,” Dybantsa captioned with an emoji.
Dybantsa and Stokes shared the court during their days playing for several youth teams and grassroots programs by Team USA basketball. But playing against or alongside each other once again will have to wait until the NBA, since Dybantsa has declared his name in this year’s draft. For now, Stokes will take the mantle left by Dybantsa’s rival, Darryn Peterson, in leading coach Bill Self’s Kansas-based program.
Tyran Stokes Reveals That It’s Practically All On Coach Bill Self For Him To Commit To The Kansas Jayhawks
Stokes took a long time to commit to where he is going for his college basketball career, as it is almost a month into the sport’s offseason. For that amount of time, he has always been linked to the Kansas Jayhawks or coach Mark Pope’s Kentucky Wildcats as his two preferred destinations. But it seems he went with the former because of coach Bill Self.
In an article by Nick Bromberg, published on Yahoo! Sports, a quote from Stokes during his announcement on Inside The NBA is shown, wherein he talks about how much of a factor coach Self was in his decision.
“Coach Bill Self, great coach, great person. He’s been there from the beginning. He’s always fed into me. He’s gave me great advice through the entire process. I just want to say thank you to the university, Rock Chalk Nation, just giving me the opportunity to go into Allen Fieldhouse and just leave my mark. I’m ready to go put on a show,” Stokes said.
Read More: BYU Star AJ Dybantsa Makes Confident NBA Draft Claim As Competition For Number One Overall Pick Heats Up
Also Read: “Today Will Determine If Mark Pope Will Get Fired After This Season”: Fans React As Tyran Stokes Reportedly Gives Update on Much Awaited Commitment
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