The top-ranked big man in 2026 has included Kentucky in his top 5 schools

The Kentucky basketball staff has been all over the country this week recruiting as the live period kicked off on Tuesday.

One of the players they were in for this week has narrowed down his list.

According to Rivals' Joe Tipton , 2026 top 15 prospect Arafan Diane released his final five schools and included Kentucky, as well as Houston, Indiana, Arkansas and Virginia.

Diane will also be on Kentucky's campus soon, as he moved up his official visit to Sept.

12, he recently told Kentucky Wildcats on SI.

The best big man in the class met with Mark Pope on Wednesday night, while the head coach also watched him in action on Thursday afternoon.

Diane has also scheduled visits to each of his final schools, visiting Kentucky (Sept.

12-14), Arkansas (Sept.

19-21), Virginia (Sept.

26-28), Indiana (Oct.

17-19), and Houston (Oct.

24-26).

Houston has received a lot of buzz with Diane, as he has had a very long relationship with head coach Kelvin Sampson, but as he begins visiting with each of his finalists, other schools will be trying to make a push.

Diane's guardian spoke with Kentucky Wildcats on SI in late July to discuss his relationship with Kentucky, which has made some serious strides since then.

He talked about how important Pope having a presence after extending the offer was.

"When Coach Pope offered, he was there like three games in a row as well.

So it wasn't just an offer, and then, you know, you don't see me, or you don't hear from me, like, showed up the next three games.

So I think that his presence after the offer made it made a bigger impact than just just the offer." Diane's guardian also spoke with Kentucky Wildcats on SI about what Diane is looking for in a school.

"Geographically, he doesn't care where he goes," Diane's guardian said.

"Let us try to get (Arafan) to the league.

The resume of the coaching staff and the school and all that obviously plays into it quite a bit.

...I think Arafan is going to go into business in terms of schooling, which is pretty much everywhere." Victor says the program's history with big men is worth taking into consideration, but there are also more important factors.

"You have to take that into consideration because the best way to know the future is to evaluate the past, right? There's no one end all be all criteria, but you've gotta take that into consideration because if they've done it before, it helps, if they've done it with bigs.

...All of those factor in, but I would say trust, relationships, style of play and conditioning are the four pillars." The 7-1 big man is looking to make his decision in late October before his high school season begins, as of now.

Kentucky will be getting him on campus real soon..

This article has been shared from the original article on si, here is the link to the original article.