5-star '25 wing Will Riley expects to visit Kentucky "sometime soon"

Mark Pope‘s primary focus right now is building out his debut Kentucky roster for the upcoming season, but there are a handful of 2025 high school recruits he’s keeping a close eye on. One of them is 6-foot-8 Canadian wing Will Riley out of Kitchener, ON — the same hometown as former Wildcat guard Jamal Murray.

It didn’t take long for Pope to reach out to Riley once he accepted the Kentucky head coaching job. In fact, the process has moved so quickly that Riley was already scheduled to visit Lexington last week — the timing just wasn’t right at the time. However, the two sides are working on setting up a trip to UK in the near future.

“I was supposed to go on a visit with them last week, but it got rescheduled and I should expect a visit sometime soon,” Riley told reporters on Saturday in Memphis during the first Nike EYBL session of the AAU season. “It was too quick notice and it would have been a one-day visit, so we decided to schedule it for another week.”

Prior to his interview with us, Riley, ranked No. 9 in his class by On3, had just dropped 22 points on 8-11 shooting (2-3 3PT) in addition to three rebounds and three assists for UPlay. His efforts came in a close loss — 58-56 to Team Takeover — but his impressive shot-making explained Pope’s interest.

🇨🇦 Will Riley (@WillRiley_7) put on a razzle dazzle display against Team Takeover (DC) in the second game of the Memphis #NikeEYBL session.

The 6-9 guard/forward racked-up 22 points in a variety of shots and was the primary ball handler, delivering some mouthwatering assists 👀 pic.twitter.com/G1mnflz9EN

— Edilson J. Silva 🇨🇦🏀🇦🇴 (@edilsonbuzz) April 28, 2024

Pope is primarily talking with Riley’s family right now, but he’s made contact on multiple occasions with the five-star prospect.

“I have a pretty good relationship (with Pope),” Riley said. “I’ve talked to him a couple of times and I’m just looking to build my relationship with him.

“I watched their games (from BYU). It’s like a video game with them. They shoot a lot of jump shots, a lot of threes, and I like that. It fits very well because I’m a very good transition player, I can catch and shoot very well, and I can play off the dribble.”

Riley shocked plenty when he included Kentucky in his top five just a few days ago. The Wildcats were joined by Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, and the NBL. Former UK head coach John Calipari, now at Arkansas, is also interested in Riley and has been since he was still coaching the ‘Cats. Riley says a visit to Fayetteville will happen “in the near future.”

What makes Pope’s interest in Riley even more notable is the idea that the high school junior could potentially reclass into 2024 and join a college program this summer to play in the 2024-25 season. Riley wouldn’t say one way or the other if he would jump up a grade or not, but it’s a move that’s certainly on the table.

“I’m just keeping that on the down-low right now, I don’t know what I’m doing yet,” Riley added. “I’m just deciding and figuring out what’s best for me.”