‘Checks off a few more boxes.’ Mark Pope continues recruiting run with third 2025 commit.
Before coaching an official game at Kentucky, Mark Pope continues to answer several important questions about his ability to lead the UK men’s basketball program.
In terms of recruiting, Pope has stacked success after success during his initial months on the job in Lexington. This covers both the transfer portal — which Pope used to bring nine players to UK this offseason — as well as traditional high school recruiting.
The latest marquee moment on the high school recruiting trail for Pope at UK arrived Saturday afternoon, when four-star class of 2025 point guard Acaden Lewis committed to Kentucky. Lewis picked the Wildcats from a final group of schools that also included heavy hitters Duke and two-time defending national champion UConn.
Lewis joins a pair of five-star 2025 prospects with Kentucky connections — shooting guard Jasper Johnson and center Malachi Moreno — as players who will be part of Pope’s first true recruiting class next year.
Lewis announced his commitment to Kentucky during an event in his hometown of Washington, D.C. The commitment ceremony was streamed live on YouTube.
In securing a commitment from Lewis — who is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 36 player in the 2025 recruiting group — Pope answered another question when it comes to his recruiting ability at a school with the resources and stature of Kentucky.
Unlike Johnson and Moreno, Lewis had no previous ties to the commonwealth or the UK program. Without any baked-in advantages, Pope went out and fought off other top programs for the Washington, D.C., recruit.
Kentucky emerged as the ultimate winner in Lewis’ recruitment over a distinguished list of other schools that, at one time, included Auburn, Duke, Michigan, UConn, North Carolina, Syracuse and Tennessee.
David Sisk — a basketball analyst for Rivals who covers both Kentucky and North Carolina — stressed the importance of Pope winning a recruiting battle against those schools when speaking to the Herald-Leader about Lewis’ commitment.
Sisk listed several college programs — such as Duke, Maryland, North Carolina and Villanova — as schools that typically have a strong recruiting presence in and around the Washington, D.C., area.
“It’s tough to get players (out of there),” Sisk said, noting the potential the Lewis commitment has for Kentucky to establish a recruiting pipeline in the D.C. area.
Kentucky has a scholarship offer out in the 2026 recruiting class to Jordan Smith, a five-star shooting guard from just outside of Washington, D.C.
“Those are the kinds of kids that can win you tournament games,” Sisk added. “I think that’s another thing, too. Once you can start getting players from an area, you kind of build a reputation there. You’re known by the high school coaches. It’s going to be really good to have kids that come out of certain high school programs, certain AAU programs. … It builds familiarity and that just does nothing but help you in the future.”
Lewis played AAU basketball for Team Durant, the Nike grassroots circuit program associated with NBA star and D.C. native Kevin Durant.
Now with Lewis’ pledge, Pope has serious momentum on the recruiting trail. All three players that Kentucky has landed in the 2025 class are ranked in the top 40 of the 247Sports Composite.
The only other schools with that many commits in the top 40 are Duke and UConn.
The Blue Devils have commitments from power forwards Cameron Boozer (No. 2) and Nikolas Khamenia (No. 27), and point guard Cayden Boozer (No. 21). The Huskies have pledges from guards Darius Adams (No. 19) and Braylon Mullins (No. 23), center Eric Reibe (No. 33) and Australian wing Jacob Furphy.
Each of the three players Pope has lined up to be incoming freshmen at UK next season would, individually, be the highest-ranked prospect that Pope has ever successfully recruited from high school.
“He does a little bit more, checks off a few more boxes, with every commitment he gets,” Sisk said of Pope.
All three of Kentucky’s current 2025 commits are expected to sign their national letters of intent to UK during the fall early signing period, which runs from Nov. 13 until Nov. 20.
Kentucky basketball continues to recruit Caleb Wilson
Of the 19 players that Kentucky basketball has offered a scholarship to in the 2025 group, only a handful are still available for the Wildcats to land.
The headliner from this select group is five-star power forward Caleb Wilson, a longtime UK recruit under both Pope and former coach John Calipari.
UK is among Wilson’s final 12 college options, and he took an official visit to Kentucky in September. Wilson, who is from Atlanta, also visited Kentucky in October 2023 for that year’s preseason Big Blue Madness event.
After a slow start, Pope renewed his recruitment of Wilson this summer, and the Wildcats are considered to be in a good spot. 247Sports national analyst Travis Branham recently listed UK, along with Arkansas and North Carolina, as the three main schools to watch in Wilson’s recruitment.
“The next step is going to be just getting the dude, and I think Caleb Wilson is probably a guy that you would think of there,” Sisk said. “Talking about (potentially) getting a five-star, a top 10-type of player. Somebody that’s a one-and-done. Because the next move (Pope) has to make now from here, even after getting Acaden, I think you’ve got to get one-and-done type players. At least one.”
Additional good news on this front for Kentucky is that Lewis has been actively recruiting Wilson to team up with him at the college level. Following Lewis’ commitment to UK on Saturday, Wilson posted on social media in response.
UK is also still a player in the recruitment of center Chris Cenac Jr., who also took an official visit to Lexington in September. Cenac has Kentucky included in his top seven list of schools.
And even at this late stage of the 2025 recruiting cycle, Pope has shown a willingness to go after new recruits.
It was reported last week that class of 2025 small forward Samis Calderon — who is from Brazil but plays, like Johnson, at the Atlanta-based Overtime Elite program — would be taking an official visit to UK sometime in November. Calderon has already visited Auburn, Michigan and Tennessee, and is expected to also visit Kansas.
This story was originally published November 2, 2024 at 2:13 PM.
