Acaden Lewis nearly committed to UConn -- and then Mark Pope happened

Once upon a time, Kentucky was trending as a potential favorite for Braylon Mullins and Eric Reibe before Mark Pope went for the kill with Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno. Mullins and Reibe then pivoted and signed with UConn under Dan Hurley. Not a bad trade-off for both schools.

Elsewhere, the Huskies added four-stars Darius Adams while the Wildcats earned a signature from four-star guard Acaden Lewis while pushing to close on five-star forward Caleb Wilson.

The two schools are fighting with Duke for the No. 1 spot in the team recruiting rankings, Kentucky certainly joining the conversation with a commitment from Wilson. But what if I told you the two-time reigning champions were a phone call away from landing Lewis, potentially throwing a wrench into the Wildcats’ plans in 2025?

Don’t believe me? Ask his dad, Jarett Lewis.

“His choice was going to be UConn,” he told Larry Vaught of the Marshall County Daily.

As momentum picked up for Kentucky publicly, the four-star guard was privately ready to cut the Wildcats from his list entirely.

“When Big Blue Nation was going crazy, Kentucky didn’t have a chance at that point,” Lewis continued.

Then UK assistant Jason Hart picked up the phone and called the recruit’s father to tell him Pope wanted to visit. That was the start of a stretch of four consecutive weeks the Kentucky head coach made the trip to see Lewis in person, pushing all of his chips in on the prized target.

“Regardless of his ranking, Pope recruited him like he was Allen Iverson in his prime,” he said. “Mark Pope or Jason Hart were here every week. Mark Pope came four straight weeks to watch Acaden work out and then went back home. We never made that public.”

Lewis was ready to make it official with UConn, but his father pushed him to “have a big boy conversation” with Pope first before walking away from Kentucky completely. That led to a sit-down lunch with the UK staff and the Lewis family, followed by a trip to the barbershop where Pope met and interacted with those in his community while the four-star guard got his hair cut.

That meeting changed everything for the Wildcats. An official visit was scheduled shortly after where Kentucky “hit a home run,” things going “perfectly” in Lexington.

“He loved it all and decided Kentucky was for him,” Lewis told Vaught. “But if I had not stepped in and said to let Pope visit, I guarantee you now he would be going to UConn. I basically forced him to take that visit but now he’s glad I did.”

Funny how things work out, huh?

Read Larry Vaught’s complete column here — it’s certainly worth your time.