Caleb Wilson has UK basketball on his top-five list. What’s the latest in his recruitment?
Last week, the Kentucky men’s basketball program officially announced three new Wildcats for next season.
All three of UK’s class of 2025 commits are now signees. Guards Jasper Johnson and Acaden Lewis, as well as center Malachi Moreno, all signed and submitted paperwork tying them to the Kentucky program for the 2025-26 season, when all three will be college basketball freshmen.
Kentucky head coach Mark Pope has already spoken at length to the Herald-Leader about each player, and the way these prospects fit into his program.
But UK isn’t done yet when it comes to recruiting the 2025 class, and Pope specifically is focused on one elite recruit that basketball analysts view as a probable one-and-done college player.
Caleb Wilson — a 6-foot-9 power forward from Atlanta — is Kentucky’s top remaining recruiting target in the 2025 class. Wilson is a consensus five-star prospect who is ranked as the No. 5 national recruit in the class by the 247Sports Composite.
On Monday afternoon, Wilson trimmed his list of colleges under consideration to just five schools, with Kentucky making the cut. UK was joined on this final list by Central Florida, North Carolina, Ohio State and Tennessee.
Several highly regarded college programs were left off Wilson’s top-five list. Arkansas, Alabama, Auburn, Duke and Southern California are among the notable schools that were recruiting Wilson, but are no longer in contention to be his college choice.
Currently, it’s UK, UNC and Ohio State at the front of Wilson’s recruitment. According to On3, Wilson is targeting a December or January commitment, which means he won’t be signing with a school until the spring signing period begins April 16.
Wilson has been a longtime Kentucky target whose recruitment by UK began when John Calipari still led the Wildcats. It was Calipari who first offered Wilson a UK scholarship in June 2023. Wilson was a visitor to Big Blue Madness in October 2023.
It took Pope a minute to resume Kentucky’s pursuit of Wilson this offseason following UK’s coaching change, but the Wildcats now find themselves as perhaps the leader in Wilson’s recruitment. The versatile forward took an official visit to Pope and UK in September, a weekend that coincided with UK football’s home game against Georgia. Wilson’s visit to Kentucky also included time spent watching a UK basketball practice and visiting Keeneland.
Wilson was in attendance at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena last week for Kentucky’s win over Duke in the Champions Classic.
In a recent interview, Wilson name-dropped a former Kentucky player, Jarred Vanderbilt, when discussing the current NBA players that he tries to model his game after.
Wilson was again recruited by Calipari after the ex-UK coach went to Arkansas. But, momentum for the Razorbacks with Wilson was halted after Wilson twice canceled plans to visit Fayetteville.
As Wilson’s decision date looms, Kentucky finds itself in a strong spot to potentially land his commitment. Kentucky is also getting some help from its 2025 signees in this pursuit.
This effort is being led by Lewis, a four-star point guard from Washington, D.C., who is good friends with Wilson. This fall has been filled with instances of the two recruits posting cryptically on social media, with both prospects indicating a desire to play together in college.
“They have purposefully teased this through social media,” David Sisk — a basketball analyst for Rivals who covers both Kentucky and North Carolina — told the Herald-Leader. “One commits (Lewis), and then the other sends out the emoji with eyes (Wilson) or things like that. They’ve made it no secret, and they are close.”
Johnson, another of Kentucky’s 2025 signees, has also gone on the record with his desire for Wilson to come to UK.
“Pushing for him hard. I know he’s a dominant force down at the 4 position,” Johnson told reporters last week at Atlanta’s Overtime Elite program, where Johnson is playing his senior season. “He can score the ball, block shots, rebound, can do it all. Really just trying to push for him. I know that’ll make it a lot easier on us offensively as well. You can’t really strategize on anybody with him on our team as well. Would really be excited to play with him. … Hopefully we can get together in college.”
When speaking exclusively to the Herald-Leader a day later, Johnson was a bit more reserved when discussing Wilson.
“Yeah, I’m talking to him, trying to recruit him,” Johnson said shortly after signing his national letter of intent to play at UK. “I know he has a big decision coming. Best of luck to him.”
Wilson is one of several still-uncommitted prospects in the class of 2025 who hold a Kentucky scholarship offer. One of these recruits is center Chris Cenac Jr., who has the Wildcats among his top seven schools.
Another positive when it comes to potentially adding Wilson to Kentucky’s 2025 recruiting class is that each of UK’s incoming players for next season brings a different skill set to the court.
“If you look at what they’ve brought in, they don’t have guys that overlap with each other,” Sisk said. “They’re really putting things together as far as position goes. I know Jasper and Acaden are both kind of combo guards that can play either on the ball or off the ball. … There’s no overlap there. Then you’ve got Malachi Moreno, you need a big. … Then you bring in Caleb who’s more of a 4, more of that power forward spot, you fill needs. He can really step in for Andrew Carr there. They don’t overlap and they all fill spots.”
NIL package expected to play big role in Caleb Wilson’s recruitment
Sisk told the Herald-Leader that — similarly to Johnson’s recruitment — a monetary name, image and likeness (NIL) package is expected to be a major factor for Wilson.
“He’s going to get a lot, no matter where he goes,” Sisk said of Wilson. “So it makes you wonder, will they say, ‘Hey, we’re satisfied with these (NIL offers). We’re going to get a lot.’ Or, does it go to the highest bidder?”
Kentucky displayed a strong ability to put together both a solid on-court recruiting pitch and off-court NIL package when securing a September commitment from Johnson, who also considered Alabama and North Carolina when making his college choice.
This success with Johnson in the NIL space should give Kentucky fans confidence that it can be repeated again with Wilson, who is projected at this early stage to be a first-round pick in the 2026 NBA draft.
“Absolutely. … I look at them and it just seems like the whole process of Jasper Johnson and Caleb Wilson kind of went hand in hand down the stretch,” Sisk said of the players’ recruitments.
Should Kentucky be able to successfully recruit Wilson, it would also answer one of the final remaining questions when it comes to Pope’s ability as a recruiter at UK. Pope has already shown that he can land quality players, both inside and outside of the commonwealth.
But, Pope is yet to land the kind of elite, one-and-done prospect that Wilson represents.
As Sisk previously told the Herald-Leader, the questions surrounding Pope’s ability to recruit NBA-level talent to Kentucky would be “put to bed in a hurry” if Wilson chooses the Wildcats.
In nine combined seasons as the head coach at Utah Valley and BYU, Pope never oversaw a future NBA draft pick or even a future NBA player.
