Kentucky Wildcats Head Coach Mark Pope is already impressing in the men’s basketball recruiting world, playing from behind. He was hired this last offseason and has already picked up two 5-star players, with others highly considering Kentucky. According to 24/7 recruiting rankings, Pope and his Kentucky Wildcats currently have the 5th best 2025 recruiting class. What is the path to having the best recruiting class? Here is how I think Pope can pull it off.
Let’s start with who is already in the fold. Pope has two commits for 2025: 5-star guard Jasper Johnson, who is listed at 6’4 “and 175 pounds. He is listed as the 13th-best player in his class and one of the top guards. His highlight reel is impressive. He shows off an explosive ability to get to the bucket but also pulls up and drops a highlight reel shot from behind the arch.
The second recruit committed to the Wildcats is 6’11 “Center Malachi Moreno, the number one player in Kentucky and listed as the third-best center in his class. Depending on sources, he is either listed as a 5-star player or on the cusp of it. Moreno is big and plays big. He knows how to use his body to throw down powerful dunks and pull down rebounds.
Even with only those two in the recruiting class, it’s already an impressive class, but what gets Kentucky fans excited is the reality that they are on the cusp of an all-time class. With a couple of targets committing to the Wildcats, they could easily have the number one recruiting class for 2025.
Currently, the only teams above them in the team recruiting rankings have three or four commits already, and that’s what has caused them to be higher in the rankings. Kentucky is the only team with multiple 5-star commitments. What will it take to push it to the top class?
The first chip to fall may be 5-star point guard Acaden Lewis. Early last week, before his UCONN visit, he was rumored to be leaning towards Kentucky. However, it does seem like UCONN is still in play and may have a good push for him.
If Lewis were to commit to Kentucky it seems like Caleb Wilson will surely follow. They aren’t a package deal but have expressed interest in playing together and Jasper Johnson is working hard to recruit them both to the Wildcats. Wilson is a 5-star power forward who visited Kentucky a few weeks ago. Not much has changed since I posted this article on Wilson. The only update is that Wilson just got off his official visit to UCF last weekend, and Wilson is almost 6’10, and here he is standing next to Tacko Fall.
Either or both would propel Kentucky to the top of the leaderboard, but that’s not the case for everyone considering Kentucky. The Wildcats hosted two other 5-star visitors this last weekend, Chris Cenac Jr. and Mikel Brown Jr.
For Pope and Kentucky to have the top recruiting class in the country, they only need a couple of those dominoes to fall. If all of them were to fall, that would be one of the all-time classes even at a place like Kentucky. Depending on how it turned out and how well they all ended up playing, the beauty of hindsight. Pope has his sights set on it, bringing in the biggest names in the class.
