UK signee Jayden Quaintance among top basketball recruits playing in Louisville this weekend

A strong collection of top prep basketball talent will be in the commonwealth this weekend.

The Derek Smith Invitational powered by MADE Hoops will take place Saturday and Sunday at Saint Xavier High School in Louisville and features a loaded list of teams and players.

Five games will be played on each day of the showcase event, but a couple specific matchups are at the top of the list for Kentucky fans hope to catch a glimpse at future Wildcats.

Here’s a player-by-player look at the Kentucky recruiting targets set to take play in this weekend’s Derek Smith Invitational in Louisville.

Jayden Quaintance

Let’s start with the only player at the event that has committed and signed with Kentucky.

The 6-foot-10 big man committed and signed with the Wildcats this month during the early signing period.

Ranked as the No. 7 overall player in the 2024 recruiting class by the Recruiting Services Consensus Index (RSCI) — which combines the rankings from the nation’s top recruiting services into one single metric — Quaintance is a modern-day big with a versatile skill set on both ends of the court.

Recently described as a “prodigy” by UK assistant coach Chin Coleman, Quaintance isn’t eligible for the NBA draft until 2026 because of his young age.

“He too has some force and some physicality, but he’s very, very, very skilled. ... He plays like a guard,” Coleman said of Quaintance. “He gives us that forward that we’ve had here in the past in terms of big-time forwards that come here and do really well.”

Quaintance, who reclassified from the 2025 recruiting group to the 2024 recruiting class, plays at Word of God Christian Academy, which is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s the same school that produced former UK one-and-done star John Wall.

Word of God only plays once during the Derek Smith Invitational: At 3:30 p.m. Sunday against Southern Coast Academy of Florida.

Jasper Johnson

As recently as the spring, Jasper Johnson was an in-state basketball star in Kentucky high school hoops.

The former Woodford County standout guard led the Yellow Jackets to a stirring run to the semifinals of the state tournament at Rupp Arena before transferring during the offseason to Link Academy, a relatively new prep basketball powerhouse based in Missouri that won the 2023 GEICO Nationals championship.

The left-handed, 6-foot-3 Johnson has long been on the radar of the Wildcats and earned a scholarship offer from Kentucky in May.

His father is Dennis Johnson, the former Harrodsburg, UK and NFL football player who currently serves as the head football coach and athletics director at Woodford County High School.

The younger Johnson was a visitor to Big Blue Madness in October and is expected to draw a big crowd with his star-studded Link Academy team, which also features former UK recruit and now Texas signee Tre Johnson.

“The move from Woodford to Link Academy has really helped me a lot in my development,” Johnson told the Herald-Leader in October at the USA Basketball junior national team minicamp in Colorado. “Definitely the level of competition, each and every day, not only in games, but practices. That was one of the big pushes for me to go to Link.”

Other standouts who play at Link Academy include guard Labaron Philon (Kansas signee), small forward Jalen Shelley (Arkansas signee) and center James Brown (North Carolina signee).

Link Academy will play once during the Derek Smith Invitational: At 8:45 p.m. Saturday against Prolific Prep of California in the weekend’s featured game.

AJ Dybantsa

That aforementioned Prolific Prep team boasts two Kentucky recruits of its own: AJ Dybantsa and Tyran Stokes, both of whom recently picked up scholarship offers from the Wildcats.

Let’s start with Dybantsa, who is universally regarded as the top prospect in the 2025 recruiting class.

Dybantsa — who is originally from Massachusetts but now plays at the California-based Prolific Prep — is a 6-foot-8 small forward with the basketball world at attention.

He was the leading scorer at the Nike EYBL season-ending Peach Jam event this summer, averaging nearly 26 points per game. Kentucky offered Dybantsa a scholarship last week.

With functional size to go along with significant offensive skill, Dybantsa is earning plenty of attention from colleges nationwide.

He took his first official visit to Southern California last month, and holds plenty of early college offers. That list includes Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, UConn, North Carolina and Texas, among others.

Dybantsa was teammates with Quaintance last summer on the United States team that won the FIBA Americas Under-16 Championship.

In addition to Dybantsa and Stokes, Prolific Prep also features center Aiden Sherrell (Alabama signee) and guard Zoom Diallo (five-star recruit).

Prolific Prep will play twice during the Derek Smith Invitational: At 8:45 p.m. Saturday against Link Academy of Missouri and at noon Sunday against host school St. Xavier.

Tyran Stokes

Stokes, who is originally from Louisville, is the only player in the 2026 recruiting class to hold a Kentucky scholarship offer.

He is teammates with Dybantsa at Prolific Prep, and like Dybantsa, Stokes also picked up his scholarship offer from the Wildcats last week.

The 6-foot-7 forward is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the top prospect in the 2026 recruiting class. Stokes also played up on the Nike EYBL circuit this year with Vegas Elite, and helped lead that team to the championship game at Peach Jam.

Stokes was also part of that American team that won the FIBA Americas Under-16 Championship over the summer. His early list of college offers includes Alabama, Auburn, Kansas, Louisville, Texas and UCLA, among others.

Derek Smith Invitational schedule

Here is the complete list of scheduled games for the Derek Smith Invitational this weekend.

All games will be held at St. Xavier High School in Louisville, and tickets can be purchased by visiting madehoops.hometownticketing.com/embed/all.

Tickets are $25 for general admission for each day of the event.

Saturday

1:45 p.m.: St. Frances (Maryland) vs. Bilingual Christian Academy (Florida)

3:30 p.m.: St. Xavier (Kentucky) vs. Bardstown (Kentucky)

5:15 p.m.: Seneca (Kentucky) vs. Shabach Christian (Maryland)

7 p.m.: Bishop O’Connell (Virginia) vs. Southern Coast Academy (Florida)

8:45 p.m.: Prolific Prep (California) vs. Link Academy (Missouri)

Sunday

Noon: St. Xavier (Kentucky) vs. Prolific Prep (California)

1:45 p.m.: Frederick Douglass (Kentucky) vs. St. Frances (Maryland)

3:30 p.m.: Word of God (North Carolina) vs. Southern Coast Academy (Florida)

5:15 p.m.: Bilingual Christian Academy (Florida) vs. Seneca (Kentucky)

7 p.m.: DeSales (Kentucky) vs. Shabach Christian (Maryland)