4-Point Play: Come on down, Malachi Moreno!

It was a mad dash to fill the roster in the spring, Mark Pope exploring the transfer portal far and wide to build his first team in Lexington while keeping two local four-star high schoolers home and bringing another with him from BYU. That was the best plan of attack to avoid a rebuild season at Kentucky despite literally rebuilding the roster from the ground up — adding seven super seniors ensures a high floor, even if blue-chip pro talent is limited. Year two is about doing things his way without time constraints and laying an actual recruiting foundation to establish a long-term identity.

Fast forward to the end of the summer and he could be nearing his first commitment of 2025 — a big one, as top-25 prospect and No. 1 center Malachi Moreno is set to announce his decision on Friday at 11 a.m. ET. The Georgetown, KY native will choose between finalists Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisville, North Carolina, Notre Dame, and Ohio State at Great Crossing High School, though it’s been widely seen as a battle between the Wildcats and Hoosiers up to this point.

And it’s the home school emerging as the top contender down the stretch.

What does the timing of Moreno’s announcement mean? And what would his addition mean for Pope and Kentucky?

Two local prospects off the board in a week

Jasper Johnson had been seen as the next high-profile recruit set to make his commitment, penciling in an announcement for late August — potentially the 21st or 22nd. He’s down to five finalists, though Alabama, Kentucky and North Carolina are the real contenders with Arkansas and Louisville on the outside looking in. And publicly, it’s the Crimson Tide and Tar Heels seen as the perceived favorites with the hometown Wildcats slipping behind in third place for the Lexington native.

That makes Moreno’s potential addition interesting on Kentucky’s end of things. Is the quick turnaround on an announcement meant to soften the blow of Johnson committing elsewhere? Or to show him the type of love he’d receive as a local kid staying home — and what he’d be missing if he decided to turn it down? Maybe it’s to quietly pull off back-to-back additions from top-25 prospects with the general public counting out Pope and UK for the dynamic scoring guard, igniting some real recruiting momentum going into the early signing period and the start of the regular season?

Or are the Wildcats simply relentless in their pursuit of the nation’s top-ranked center and ready to take his commitment the second he’s prepared to give one? We know that part for certain.

No matter what, clarity is coming in a hurry with the local talent. That’s when the recruiting board really begins to take shape for Kentucky.

Dominoes will fall quickly

Pope and his staff have done a tremendous job casting a wide net in 2025, Moreno and Johnson joined by the likes of Nate Ament (No. 3), Darryn Peterson (No. 4), Chris Cenac (No. 5), Caleb Wilson (No. 6), Tounde Yessoufou (No. 11), Brayden Burries (No. 12), Mikel Brown Jr. (No. 15), Nikola Bundalo (No. 17), Eric Reibe (No. 33), Braylon Mullins (No. 35) and Acaden Lewis (No. 55) among top targets.

Kentucky may not be the favorite for all of those prospects, but they have put themselves in the conversation and a few steps away from striking distance if not. That’s where the dominoes start to fall and priorities shift with names coming off the list or added, if necessary.

Take Reibe for instance. With the high school class expected to be kept around four to five at most — two guards, one to two wings/forwards and one big — the center spot is expected to be first come, first served. If Moreno takes it, it’s fair to assume talks with Reibe come to a close. The same can be said for Johnson and the backcourt targets — miss on him and you take the first two ready to commit between the likes of Lewis, Brown, Burries and Mullins. And then the others are scratched off the list.

Don’t overlook the Braylon Mullins connection

As we talk through Kentucky’s recruiting board and potential signing class in 2025, keep in mind that Moreno and Mullins were Indiana Elite teammates on the Adidas 3SSB circuit — close friends with several overlaps regarding interested schools. The Wildcats and Hoosiers are not only throwing haymakers back and forth for Moreno, they’re doing the same for Mullins — a native of Greenfield, IN. They had planned to take their official visits to Bloomington together the weekend of September 21-22 before Moreno dove in head-first on a commitment.

Where does that leave Mullins? Kentucky has emerged as a serious contender, joined by Indiana and UConn with Duke hoping to slide in late. The four-star guard is expected to take officials to UConn (Aug. 1), Michigan (Sept. 7), North Carolina (Sept. 14), Indiana (Sept. 21), Duke (Oct. 4) and Tennessee (Oct. 19) before closing out his visit schedule with an official to Kentucky the weekend of Oct. 26. A commitment is expected shortly after.

The Wildcats adding a friend and teammate in Moreno would certainly not hurt their chances to land arguably the best shooter in high school basketball.

Getting the recruiting monkey off Pope’s back

The Kentucky head coach has aced the PR test since the day of his introductory press conference. He’s built a strong staff and debut roster, recruited the right guys and embraced championship expectations. He won’t fight off skeptics on his postseason resume until March, but questions regarding his recruiting prowess are about to be answered as commitments pile up.

Just how quickly will he get the monkey off his back, though? For now, Collin Chandler was seen as a layup, even as a top-35 prospect out of high school. The same can be said for Travis Perry and Trent Noah, who grew up bleeding blue.

Would that perception change with the potential additions of Moreno and/or Johnson — local talents, sure, but top-25 recruits and likely McDonald’s All-Americans? Or to take it a step further, what would the PR hit look like if Johnson were to turn down the Cats for Alabama or North Carolina? It’s probably a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation for Pope, unfortunately. Land them and it’s the expectation, miss on them and it’s the end of the world.

For me personally? None of that matters. Pope’s job isn’t to rack up PR wins — he’s gotten plenty of those. It’s to rack up wins on the court, and Moreno would help him do that. If Johnson feels it’s in his best interest to play elsewhere, it’s also on Pope to find an adequate replacement whether they’re from Lexington or Luxembourg — you don’t get bonus points for the former. At the end of the day, fit matters infinitely more than proximity to home. Having both is just icing on the cake.

Let things play out before deciding the first-year Kentucky head coach’s fate on the recruiting trail, even if it means that monkey dangles from Pope’s back going into the early signing period. It won’t make a difference either way.