CHICAGO -- Five-star recruit Tyran Stokes said his dominant performance in Kansas' 89-69 win over Kentucky on Tuesday night in the Champions Classic was "personal" for him.
Stokes, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2027 NBA draft, grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and flirted with the possibility of playing for the Wildcats, even hosting an Instagram Live session on a recruiting trip to Rupp Arena, before signing with Kansas.
"I mean, I'm pretty sure everyone obviously knows. For me, it was up to Kansas and Kentucky for my last two schools," said Stokes, who finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. "I'm from Louisville. I had a long recruiting process with Kentucky, so obviously when I chose Kansas and I knew that game was going to be here, it was personal for sure. But we got the [win], played together great as a team. That's all that matters."
With dozens of NBA scouts and executives reportedly at the United Center, the freshman star pumped his fist after he made his first 3-point attempt and proceeded to rattle off more shots as Kentucky worked to stall the 6-foot-8 talent.
He showed his full skill set in one of the biggest moments of his career to date, while also keeping his emotions in check.
"For me, just growing up, I was a [North Carolina-Louisville] fan. A lot of my family either likes Louisville or Kentucky, but I was on the Louisville side," Stokes said. "So, growing up, you know the tradition and the rivalry that was between Louisville and Kentucky. So being from Louisville, I still got that same emotion as if I was playing for Louisville. But I'm here in Kansas, so obviously being able to play against a school like that is just one of one and it's my first time to step on a big stage and show what I can do."
Kansas had a turbulent offseason. Former Purdue star Trey Kaufman-Renn joined the team last month after he was cleared to play a sixth season by a judge in Ohio. Tre White III and Melvin Council Jr., who were also awaiting legal clearance, joined the team late, too. And earlier this week, Council suffered a foot injury that will keep him out until conference action in January.
Despite the adjustments the team has had to make in recent weeks, the Jayhawks demonstrated a level of cohesiveness Tuesday that they had lacked when they played exhibitions against Louisville and Duke prior to the start of the season.
The team scored 22 points off 15 Kentucky turnovers. The Wildcats had zero points off Kansas' 10 turnovers. Milan Momcilovic, the former Iowa State sharpshooter who was reportedly paid $6 million to sign with Kentucky, was shadowed all night and had taken only three shots five minutes into the second half.
White, Kansas' fifth-year guard, had a game-high 30 points. Kaufman-Renn finished with 12 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals.
But Stokes' effort in a national spotlight only solidified his status as the first potential pick in the 2027 NBA draft.
"I think that 'personal' means he's from Kentucky and they recruited him hard, so I don't think it was anything more than that, at least to my knowledge," coach Bill Self said about Stokes' performance. "But, I actually thought he handled the moment better than I actually anticipated. He's very emotional, which is a big, big plus. Nobody should take that as a negative, but I didn't want him to be too geeked up where he couldn't play. And what helped him a lot tonight was seeing that first 3 go down. And after that, I thought he played under control. I thought he played within what we're trying to do and still found a way to be aggressive at the same time. I thought it was pretty impressive."
Prior to his commitment to Kansas in April, Stokes took a visit to Lexington. Late one night during the trip, he posted himself taking shots, including a half-court heave, at Rupp Arena. It was clear then that Kansas and Kentucky were the two schools in position for Stokes' services. His commitment to Kansas gave Self's incoming class a significant boost and sent Mark Pope searching for an anchor in his recruiting class after missing out on Stokes.
While Stokes and his teammates celebrated Tuesday night, Pope left Chicago dejected after a lopsided loss in a year that could define -- or end -- his tenure at Kentucky. Pope has suffered five 20-point losses in 75 games, the same number of 20-point losses John Calipari had in 533 games as Kentucky's coach, according to ESPN Research.
Pope's ability to shake off Tuesday's result to meet expectations or his failure to bounce back and meet the standard of the winningest team in Division I history will remain the backdrop to his third season.
"I don't think it's possible to overreact to this loss," Pope said. "This is a tough loss for us. We did not play well. We did not play up to our standard. We did not deal well with disruption."
