Kentucky basketball is one of the greatest brands in college basketball and all of college athletics, for that matter. Kentucky basketball is the greatest tradition in all of college basketball, and that was the case before John Calipari got to Lexington, and that will be the case now that he is at Arkansas.

Coach Calipari just landed an elite recruit in the 2025 class, Darius Acuff Jr, who is one of the best guards in the class. Shortly after this commitment, some college basketball personalities began to say all of Kentucky’s recruiting success during the Calipari era was solely because of Coach Cal and had nothing to do with the Kentucky brand. That is just blatantly not true. Now to give Coach Calipari credit, he is the best recruiter in college basketball, and he will continue to succeed on the trail in Fayetteville, as he has already proved, but Kentucky sells itself easily.

Coach Mark Pope will be able to prove this to be true when he starts to land elite players in the 2025 class and beyond. Coach Pope was not an elite recruiter when he came to Kentucky, but he isn’t selling himself to recruits. He is selling the history of Kentucky basketball, and hearing from some elite players in this class, this strategy is working so far.

Coach Calipari is a legend, and he will succeed at Arkansas, but to say that Coach Cal was the only reason that Kentucky had recruiting success during his time in Lexington is just in no way true.

The North Carolina Tar Heels recently offered 2026 prospect Caleb Holt, adding him to their recruiting board last week.

The small forward is among the top prospects overall in the 2026 class and will be a priority for many programs, including UNC. But now, another blueblood program is getting involved as well.

Kentucky became the latest program to offer Holt, joining the recruitment and upping their pursuit of him. Holt took to Twitter to announce that he had received an offer from Kentucky.

They join Duke, North Carolina, Alabama, Kansas, Auburn, and Tennessee among the programs that have officially offered him so far.

The 6-foot-5, 200-pound Holt is ranked No. 3 nationally, the No. 1 small forward and No. 1 player in the state of Georgia per the 247Sports recruiting rankings.  He holds a total of 16 offers in his recruitment with more likely on the way.

Holt is one of five players to hold an offer from Hubert Davis and the Tar Heels in the 2026 class. UNC has yet to land a recruit in either the 2025 or 2026 class so far.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

Story originally appeared on Tarheels Wire

Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear drew standing ovations from the crowd Saturday at the Iowa Democratic Party’s Liberty and Justice Celebration event.

Beshear said the upcoming election would be vital to protecting Americans’ rights and keeping former President Donald Trump out of office.

“Women’s rights are on the line, our economic recovery is on the line, the Senate and the House are on the line and the future of our sacred democracy is on the line,” Beshear said.

Beshear, who is one of several high-profile Democrats being vetted to be Kamala Harris’s running mate, also took shots at GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance for his lack of conviction and his comments about his “origin story.”

“He ain’t from Kentucky. He ain’t from Appalachia. And he ain’t gonna be your vice president,” Beshear said.

Vance’s book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” recounts his upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, largely by a grandmother who moved away from the Appalachian region of Kentucky.

Outside of the keynote speaker, Iowa Democratic leaders who took the stage bashed Iowa Republican policies. Officials criticized changes to the Iowa Area Education Agencies (AEA) and the anti-abortion law that will take effect Monday.

Iowa Democratic Chair Rita Hart vowed that the November election in Iowa would be different, and that Democrats would flip many seats both at the state Legislature and in Congress.

State House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst blasted Iowa Republicans over their leadership of the state and said the crowd would change Republicans’ attitude.

“Republicans feel like they’re going to be in charge forever. They vote like it and they act like it,” Konfrst said. “It’s our job to tell everyone that that’s not true. We’re going to flip the Iowa House.”

Iowa Auditor Rob Sand criticized efforts by state leaders to reduce the power of state auditors and repeated his colleagues’ assurances that Democrats would win big in the upcoming election.

“We’re going to move on and continue to build the power of the Democratic Party in the state of Iowa so that we can restore checks and balances and make sure that we have transparency and accountability and justice rising in the state of Iowa,” Sand said.

Iowa GOP spokesperson Luke Wolff said in a press release shortly after the event ended that a “radical speaker” like Beshear did not belong in Iowa.

“He is a privileged, out of touch Governor with an awful track record, and his policies have absolutely no place here. It makes sense the Iowa Democrats look to him as an inspiring figure who fits their radical agenda,” Wolff said.

Other speakers at the event included state Senate Minority Leader Pam Jochum, and congressional challengers Ryan Melton, Lanon Baccam and Sarah Corkery.

Beshear ended his speech with a call for unity and reiterated his endorsement of Harris.

“This November, we’re gonna win and get back to being each other’s neighbors. We’re gonna get back to being Americans before we’re Democrats or Republicans. We’re gonna get back to working together,” Beshear said. “What [Harris] will do as president is not move the country to the right or the left. She will move it forward.”

Beshear is expected to speak again at another rally near Atlanta, Georgia on Sunday.