McDonald’s All-Americans named for 2025. Which UK men’s basketball recruit was honored?
The list of 2025 McDonald’s All-Americans was released Monday afternoon, with 24 of the best boys high school basketball players from around the country receiving the accolade of becoming a Burger Boy.
This group includes future UK men’s basketball player Malachi Moreno. The Great Crossing High School star center was named to the East Team for the event.
All three of Kentucky’s signees in the 2025 high school recruiting class — Moreno, along with left-handed guards Jasper Johnson and Acaden Lewis— were nominated to be selected for this year’s McDonald’s All-American roster. But, only Moreno received the prestigious honor.
This year’s edition of the McDonald’s All-American Game will take place April 1 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City.
The McDonald’s All-American Girls Game will air on ESPN2 at 6:30 p.m. on April 1, with the boys game to follow at 9 p.m.
Tickets to watch the games can be purchased at mcdaag.com.
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UK men’s basketball builds on McDonald’s All-American Game history
Things got complicated last year when it came to keeping track of UK men’s basketball’s history with regard to McDonald’s All-American Game selections.
Three players who committed to play at Kentucky — guard Boogie Fland, small forward Karter Knox and center Jayden Quaintance — were all selected as Burger Boys. Only Fland and Quaintance had committed and signed paperwork to play at UK at the time of their selection for the McDonald’s All-American Game in January 2024. Knox didn’t commit to UK until last March.
Of course, none of these three players ever made it to Lexington.
The offseason departure of former UK coach John Calipari caused a massive shakeup when it came to Kentucky’s 2024 high school recruiting class. Of the six players who were committed under Calipari to play at UK, only in-state guard Travis Perry — the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky boys high school basketball history — followed through with his pledge to play at Kentucky under new UK coach Mark Pope.
As such, Calipari officially ended his 15-season tenure as the Kentucky coach having signed 46 McDonald’s All-Americans out of high school (without counting Knox).
The 46 Burger Boys who signed to play at Kentucky during Calipari’s 15-season reign represented the most of any school in the country during this time period.
According to UK, Moreno is now the 79th McDonald’s All-American to sign with Kentucky. Moreno is also the sixth All-American from the commonwealth to sign with UK, along with Dirk Minniefield (1979), Winston Bennett (1983), Rex Chapman (1986), Rajon Rondo (2004) and Reed Sheppard (2023).
(Rondo, who is from Louisville, began his high school career at Eastern High School in the Derby City, before playing his senior season at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia).
With Calipari now out of the picture, Pope is beginning to build his own reputation recruiting All-Americans to Lexington, and it starts with Moreno.
A 6-foot-11, 230-pound center, Moreno was the first player in the 2025 high school recruiting class to commit to Kentucky when he did so last August.
Moreno is considered to be one of the favorites to win this year’s edition of the Kentucky Mr. Basketball award, which honors the state’s top high school boys basketball senior.
Moreno won’t be the first McDonald’s All-American to play for Pope at UK, though. Sophomore center Brandon Garrison, who began his college career at Oklahoma State, was a 2023 McDonald’s All-American and scored 11 points on 5-for-5 shooting in that year’s game. Garrison was teammates with Sheppard on the West team in the 2023 McDonald’s All-American Game.
Moreno and his Great Crossing team are 17-4 on the season and still a perfect 5-0 in 11th Region games. Last season, Moreno and the Warhawks advanced to the semifinals of the Sweet 16 state tournament.
Nate Ament, Caleb Wilson also named McDonald’s All-Americans
The list of 2025 McDonald’s All-Americans includes several top recruits whose names are familiar to UK basketball fans.
This includes five-star power forward Caleb Wilson, who recently committed to North Carolina over UK. It also includes another five-star power forward, Nate Ament, who is now considered UK’s top remaining recruiting target in the 2025 high school class.
Ament is one of four McDonald’s All-American selections who are yet to commit to a school.
That group includes guard Alijah Arenas, who is the son of former NBA player Gilbert Arenas. The younger Arenas was previously part of the 2026 high school recruiting class, but he recently reclassified to the 2025 high school group. On Monday, it was announced that Arenas is down to five schools in his recruitment: Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville and Southern California.
Gilbert Arenas played two seasons at Arizona from 1999 to 2001, earning All-Pac-10 First Team honors as a sophomore. Izela Arenas, who is Gilbert’s daughter, is a freshman guard on the Louisville women’s basketball team.
Calipari, the former UK coach now at Arkansas, has two McDonald’s All-American selections in the 2025 class who are set to play for the Razorbacks next season. Those players are guards Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas.
Both Duke and two-time defending national champions UConn each have three McDonald’s All-Americans as part of their 2025 recruiting groups. For the Blue Devils, Cameron and Cayden Boozer — the twin sons of former Duke legend and NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer — were both named Burger Boys, along with power forward Nikolas Khamenia.
UConn will be bringing in guards Darius Adams and Braylon Mullins (a former top UK recruiting target), as well as center Eric Reibe.
Louisville has a McDonald’s All-American as part of its 2025 recruiting class, with head coach Pat Kelsey set to bring in five-star point guard Mikel Brown Jr.
Brown is the 29th all-time McDonald’s All-American for the Cardinals, and the program’s first since Samuell Williamson in 2019.
Other schools, in addition to UK, represented on the McDonald’s All-American list are Houston with two players and the following schools with one Burger Boy each: Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Washington.
McDonald’s All-American boys’ roster
East team: Shon Abaev (Cincinnati), Darius Acuff Jr. (Arkansas), Darius Adams (UConn), Nate Ament (undecided), Cameron Boozer (Duke), Cayden Boozer (Duke), Jalen Haralson (Notre Dame), Isiah Harwell (Houston), Trey McKenney (Michigan), Malachi Moreno (Kentucky), Braylon Mullins (UConn), Eric Reibe (UConn).
West team: Alijah Arenas (undecided), Mikel Brown Jr. (Louisville), Niko Bundalo (Washington), Brayden Burries (undecided), Chris Cenac Jr. (Houston), AJ Dybantsa (BYU), Nikolas Khamenia (Duke), Koa Peat (undecided), Darryn Peterson (Kansas), Meleek Thomas (Arkansas), Caleb Wilson (North Carolina), Tounde Yessoufou (Baylor).
This story was originally published January 27, 2025 at 3:46 PM.
