Mark Pope is making some late moves with the 2026 recruiting class.
On Wednesday, class of 2026 point guard Mason Williams — the son of former NBA All-Star Mo Williams — took a recruiting visit to Kentucky. The 6-foot-2 Mason is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as a four-star prospect and as the No. 125 overall recruit in the high school senior class.
UK doesn’t yet have a commitment from any player in the 2026 recruiting group. Dating back to at least 2010, this is the latest Kentucky has gone in a recruiting cycle without a high school commitment.
Mason — who played prep basketball at the Tennessee Collegiate Academy near Memphis, Tennessee, — was previously committed to play for his father, Mo, at Jackson State. When he reopened his recruitment in early December, Mason told 247Sports he was hoping to play in the SEC.
“Growing up, I was a big SEC fan, so hopefully SEC schools call and truly recruit me well enough to go to their school,” Mason said.
Before he committed to Jackson State, Mason also reported scholarship offers from Memphis and Ole Miss, among other programs. Mason reported an offer from Texas Tech after reopening his recruitment.
Mason’s father, Mo, spent two seasons playing in the SEC at Alabama. Mo was the SEC Freshman of the Year in 2002 and an All-SEC Third-Team selection in 2003. He averaged 13.1 points, 4.2 assists and 1.5 steals across 64 games, all starts, in his two seasons with the Crimson Tide. Mo was taken in the second round of the 2003 NBA draft and scored more than 10,000 points across 13 NBA seasons.
Mo was an NBA All-Star in 2009 and won an NBA championship in 2016 with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Since 2020, Mo has been a college head coach. He spent two seasons at Alabama State before coaching the past four seasons at Jackson State. He’s yet to lead a team to the NCAA Tournament in six seasons as a head coach in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Mo posted a photo on Instagram of Mason’s visit to Kentucky on Wednesday night.
During the 2024-25 season, Jackson State played Kentucky at Rupp Arena. The Cats won that game 108-59, setting the Pope-era record for points scored by UK.
“You can have pace in your offense. You can have movement in your offense. But if you don’t make the right read, it doesn’t give you an advantage. They do a good job of getting off the ball and making the right read to the right person,” Mo said of UK’s offense under Pope in November 2024.
Kentucky is expressing interest in Mason during the early stages of its offseason.
UK’s 2025-26 season ended Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a loss to Iowa State in St. Louis.
With Denzel Aberdeen and Otega Oweh out of NCAA eligibility — and with sophomore forward Jayden Quaintance set to leave for the NBA draft — there are 11 players on UK’s roster who are expected to play college basketball next season. Not all of them will do so at Kentucky, though.
This opens up spots for Pope to pursue new players via routes such as the NCAA transfer portal and high school recruiting.
The portal doesn’t open until April 7, although several players with Kentucky interest have already announced their intentions to enter the portal when it opens.
On the high school recruiting front, Kentucky has already struck out with most of its top targets in the 2026 class. UK is still involved with small forward Tyran Stokes, the consensus top prospect in 2026.
A major change to the Cats’ recruiting operations occurred Tuesday night, when news broke that assistant coach Jason Hart is leaving Kentucky to become the associate head coach at SMU.
Hart was Kentucky’s lead recruiter for Stokes. Even without Hart on staff, Kentucky will be a contender in Stokes’ recruitment. Earlier this month, ESPN reported Stokes is in the process of setting up another visit to Kentucky. Stokes previously visited Lexington this past June.
Hart was also UK’s initial connection to Dink Pate, an NBA G League guard who is expected to be granted college eligibility by the NCAA.
Another late-stage recruiting option for Pope could be Maximo Adams, a five-star small forward from California. Adams was recruited by UK last year, but committed to North Carolina in November.
It remains to be seen if Adams will stick with the Tar Heels through their ongoing coaching change. Earlier this week, UNC fired Hubert Davis after five seasons as head coach.