University of Kansas basketball recruiting

The Kansas men’s basketball team continued its recent success on the recruiting trail with the commitment of Luke Barnett on Friday afternoon.

Barnett, a 6-foot-4, 180-pound shooting guard who attends athletic powerhouse Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California, announced his decision to join the Jayhawks as part of a CBS Sports livestream. He is a four-star prospect in the 247Sports Composite in the class of 2026 who visited KU for Late Night in the Phog and picked the Jayhawks over Miami and UNLV.

“Just going on the visit, talking to their coaches, seeing the culture at Kansas, the basketball history, I just feel like it’s a great spot I can go in to get better and really improve,” Barnett said on the livestream. “It’s a great culture for me to be in, in order to get where I want to be eventually.”

Barnett is primarily known for his shooting. As a junior at Mater Dei, according to MaxPreps, he averaged 21.0 points per game; in five games for AZ Unity as part of Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League Peach Jam in July in North Augusta, South Carolina, he posted 11.2 points and shot 13-for-41 (31.2%) from beyond the arc.

“(KU is) getting someone who can come in, space the floor, hit shots, someone who’s going to play hard all the time, someone who’s tough and just really wants to win more than anything,” Barnett said.

On3’s Jamie Shaw wrote of Barnett after seeing him at The Border League in Las Vegas earlier in October that he is “a really quality shooter, able to knock things down off movement or the stand still. An off-the-ball guard, the shooting pulls gravity and it is only a matter of time before he gets going.”

In declaring Barnett one of the top five shooters in the class in an article in August, Shaw added, “He has good footwork and a quiet base, along with a lot of confidence and consistent release, no matter stepping into it or shooting off movement.”

Earlier in the fall, KU in rapid succession earned commitments from guard Taylen Kinney, wing Trent Perry, wing Javon Bardwell and center Davion Adkins. All but Bardwell are currently part of the 2026 recruiting class, and Bardwell is a candidate to reclassify from 2027, meaning KU could have as many as five freshmen lined up for 2026-27 with a year remaining until the season starts.

The Jayhawks have four players guaranteed to exhaust their eligibility after 2025-26 in transfers Melvin Council Jr., Jayden Dawson, Nginyu Ngala and Tre White, and will surely have additional departures with Darryn Peterson a lock for the 2026 NBA Draft. What remains to be seen is if any additional players will join Peterson in the professional ranks after the year.