Acaden Lewis is 'definitely' recruiting Caleb Wilson to join him at Kentucky

Remember all of those cryptic tweets shared by Jasper Johnson, Acaden Lewis and Caleb Wilson on that late September evening? Johnson told Wilson to join him in Lexington after the two missed their opportunity to play together during AAU ball while Lewis and Wilson passed eyeball emojis back and forth for the world to see. That came after Wilson told Lewis to “come on over bro” after dropping his list of final four schools, followed by Lewis commenting on Wilson’s official visit pictures to Kentucky, “I wanna play (with) this guy.”

To say they had Big Blue Nation antsy if not giddy would be an understatement. And Lewis knew it, though he swears he didn’t know he was going to Kentucky at that point, nor had Wilson revealed which direction he was leaning.

He did know, however, the interest was mutual and very much real.

“I don’t even know what it was,” he told KSR. “I think Jasper posted first, and then he texted me. I didn’t even know he was gonna do some of the comments he did — sometimes he texts me, sometimes he just does it. He’s a funny dude, so it’s not surprising when he does stuff like that. His interest is definitely genuine, I know that for a fact.

“At that point when we were doing that, though, neither of us knew where we were going. I had no clue at all, and neither did he. So I think he did think it was kind of funny, and so did I. It was just playing around.”

They may have been joking at the time, but Kentucky’s pursuit of the Wilson is no joke, just as it wasn’t for Lewis. Mark Pope secured a commitment from the latter this weekend and is now pushing his chips in on the former to wrap up the Wildcats’ 2025 recruiting class.

And he now has his close friend on board to help bring him home to Lexington.

“I’m not as out about it as Jasper and everybody else has been, but I text him a lot. I call him sometimes,” Lewis told KSR. “It’s not always about Kentucky or basketball, it’s just — you know, he’s one of the cooler dudes I’ve in this basketball stuff so far. We’ve really just become friends.”

Lewis met Wilson at Chris Paul’s CP3 Elite Guard Camp, but grew closer at the SLAM Summer Classic before hanging out again at Nike’s Mamba League Invitational.

“I was the first person to get to SLAM and then he walked up — he was second — and was like, ‘Yo, what’s up?’ First thing he said was, ‘I’m a big fan of your game. I watched your film.’ And I was like, bro, this dude is a lottery pick. This is kind of crazy,” he said. “It was just cool, we got cool from there. I saw him again at the Mamba event. He wasn’t even my roommate, but he was in my room more than my roommate, to be honest. We’ve just gotten really cool since then.”

So when the two talk about playing together at the next level, it’s not for show. Lewis isn’t making any promises — Wilson is going to do what’s best for his basketball future — but he’s certainly going to recruit his friend to join him at Kentucky.

“I definitely will be recruiting him, trying to get him to come over,” Lewis told KSR. “I think he’ll be good wherever he ends up.”

Is Wilson his only target now that he’s transitioned from recruited to recruiter? He knows five-star forward Chris Cenac and could see himself making a push there, if necessary.

But if Lewis has it his way, it won’t get to that point.

“Probably just Caleb, you know? I’m cool with Chris Cenac, as well, but I don’t know when he’s making his decision. I haven’t really talked to him about it as much,” he said. “But I don’t think I want the class to be super big anyway, I think I’ll only recruit one more person. I think Pope agrees, I don’t think he wants his class to be over four.

“So I’m gonna definitely talk to Caleb and try to get him over. That’s about it for me.”

Sounds like a plan to me.