Will Kentucky land these three 2025 recruits?
Mark Pope has begun recruiting the 2025 class, and he is after some highly ranked players. This will be Coach Pope’s first true high school recruiting class at Kentucky and will be his chance to make a statement showing the college basketball world that he is going to recruit elite talent.
Let’s take a look at three players in the 2025 recruiting class that Coach Pope and his staff need to land.
Three players Kentucky needs to land in the 2025 recruiting class
1. Jasper Johnson
Jasper Johnson is a five-star guard ranked as the 11th-best player in the 2025 class according to 247Sports composite rankings. Johnson is from Kentucky, and his father played football for the Wildcats. He is an elite shooting 6’4 guard who would fit in well with Coach Pope’s system. Coach Pope can’t let a player who grew up 30 minutes from Rupp Arena slip away.
2. Malachi Moreno
Like Johnson, Malachi Moreno is from Kentucky, and he plays his high school hoops for Great Crossing. Moreno is a 6’11 center and is ranked as the 29th best player in the 2025 class according to 247Sports composite rankings. He is a dominant player down low who has a ton of post moves and helps clean the glass. He would be a multi-year starter in the paint for Kentucky if he picked the Wildcats. Moreno is another player from the state that Coach Pope can’t let slip away.
3. Nate Ament
Nate Ament is a five-star power forward in the 2025 class ranked as the 16th best player according to 247Sports composite rankings. Ament is an elite shooter for a 6’9 forward, so he would fit right into the offensive system Coach Pope wants to run. He has a great handle and isn’t afraid to help on the glass. Coach Pope just recently offered Ament, but he would be a perfect addition to this 2025 class.
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Kentucky’s ‘brilliant relationship’ with the NBA isn’t going anywhere under Mark Pope
There was a love-hate relationship between Kentucky fans and the NBA under John Calipari, certainly by the end of his 15-year run in Lexington. When things were rolling, Big Blue Nation loved watching Wildcat stars ‘succeed and proceed’ to the league, turning those brilliant one-and-done memories into career-long support. Things got tricky, though, when the NBA factory kept churning forward as postseason success stalled. Was it more important to count draft picks and pro salaries or hang banners? It’s fun to do both, not so much when there’s a heavy emphasis on the former and none on the latter.
Under new head coach Mark Pope, who has stated from day one that getting No. 9 to Lexington is the most important thing, how will things look going forward? Pro production should ideally remain unchanged because skill like that helps you win games. Pope will, however, assist in determining what should be done with that potential.
Kentucky and the NBA will continue to have a good relationship if everything is done right.
Regarding the NBA, Pope remarked, “That’s been a mainstay of Kentucky basketball since the beginning of time.”Nine players from the squad I led to the national championship my senior year went on to play in the NBA for at least seven years. Nine! That, if my math is correct, equals 75%.
“This brilliant relationship between Kentucky basketball and the NBA is something that has been really, really longstanding and it’s a vital, important part. It’s the manifestation of the success we have here.”
Pope’s debut roster at Kentucky may not be loaded with one-and-dones — unless you want to count the seven super seniors with one final season of eligibility remaining. Moving forward, though, he has made it clear he plans to bring in “one-and-done burger boys, for sure” to play alongside multi-year prospects and incoming transfers. He’s stuck with that promise by offering and recruiting some of the best players in high school basketball, starting all the way at the top in 2025 No. 1 overall prospect AJ Dybantsa, who will be visiting Kentucky later this fall.
Seasons won’t be won and lost when the final team recruiting rankings are released each offseason, but the plan is to continue using the endless resources made available in Lexington to bring in the nation’s best talent, players who fit together under Pope.
If you can help the Wildcats win games, you have a spot waiting for you in blue and white.
“When you see teams win and win at the highest level, it’s because they have great players and it’s because their players become great. Great players, players who become great, they have a chance to go on and continue to play (in the NBA),” Pope said. “Our relationship with the NBA, if we do our job well and our guys do their jobs well, it’s going to continue in massive earnest just like it did with (Coach) Cal and Tubby (Smith) and Coach (Rick Pitino) and Joe B. (Hall).
“Hopefully we’ll continue that, it’s a really important part of what we do.”
The NBA Draft may not be “the biggest day in Kentucky basketball history” any longer, but it’s still going to be an important event for the program under Pope year after year.
