Mark Pope has been with the Kentucky Wildcats for five short months since taking over following John Calipari’s exodus. He has assembled a roster and coaching staff for the 2024-25 season and secured two top-25 commits for the class of 2025 in Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno.
247 Sports has updated its class of 2025 recruiting rankings, and both of the Wildcats’ commitments are among the top 25.
Jasper Johnson sits at No. 13 overall and is the second-best shooting guard. He’ll need a strong senior season at Overtime Elite to crack the top 10 when the final rankings come out in the spring.
Malachi Moreno checked in at No. 25 overall and is the third-best center in the class of 2025. Oddly enough, Moreno is a 4-star prospect in the official 247 Sports rankings. However, 247 Sports Composite, which factors in all of the major recruiting rankings, now has him as a 5-star prospect and is ranked No. 24 overall.
Kentucky is the only school with multiple top-25 commitments, and there’s a good chance there will be at least one more before it’s all said and done.
Who could that be? We begin with the best recruit Kentucky is still targeting with the No. 4 overall player in 2025, 5-star power forward Nate Ament. Kentucky was supposed to have a visit with Ament, but that was canceled, and he says that they are hoping to schedule another visit with the Cats soon, according to Jamie Shaw of On3.
Kentucky also recently visited the No. 7 overall player in the class, 5-star point guard Mikel Brown Jr. Since Johnson’s commitment, there’s been less talk about Brown coming to Kentucky. At this time, 247 Sports has a prediction of Brown at 100% to Ole Miss.
Another player Kentucky is targeting is the No. 8 overall player, 5-star power forward Caleb Wilson. Kentucky will have to gain ground if it wants to compete with the other teams that have been recruiting him for a while, but Wilson is officially visiting Lexington this weekend.
Brayden Burries is another guard Kentucky has been talking to. Burries is a 5-star combo guard and comes in at 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds. Kentucky was just in recently to watch Burries play in a tournament.
Chris Cenac is the No. 10 overall player in the class. Even with the commitment of Moreno, Cenac could play alongside him at power forward at the college level. The 6-foot-10 big man will be visiting Kentucky the last week of September. He’s a player to keep an eye out for as his recruitment begins to heat up.
Braylon Mullins has been a name that Kentucky fans have been hearing for a while. Mullins comes in at No. 16 as a 5-star shooting guard. There have been some talks that Johnson’s commitment could impact Kentucky’s chances with Mullins, but at this time, he is still scheduled to visit Lexington later this year.
Tounde Yessoufou is another name that’s been heavily linked to Kentucky since Pope took over. Yessoufou is ranked No. 17 and is a 4-star power forward. One factor that could play in this race is whether he wants to stay out West since he is from California. He will be visiting Kentucky during Big Blue Madness.
Niko Bundalo comes in at No. 31 and is a 4-star power forward. Pope visited Bundalo recently. He’s still planning on visiting Kentucky, but a date has not been officially announced.
Acaden Lewis is a 4-star combo guard and comes in at No. 32. Since Johnson’s commitment, the Kentucky staff has been pushing hard to get Lewis to Kentucky. The majority of the staff just met with him during an in-home visit. Lewis could potentially be the point guard, and Johnson could run as the shooting guard next year in Kentucky. A team to watch out for in Lewis’ recruitment is UConn, as they are looking for a lead guard next year as well.
Overall, Kentucky has been targeting the best players since Pope took over, with most of them being ranked in the top 50. It will be interesting to see how Pope finishes his first full recruiting cycle at Kentucky.
You can check out the entire updated 2025 rankings from 247 Sports here.
‘Like’ our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for more Kentucky Basketball recruiting news and views. Go Cats!
