Jasper Johnson, Malachi Moreno will accompany Mark Pope at Team USA U19 training camp

Kentucky men’s basketball head coach Mark Pope and two of his incoming freshmen will travel to Colorado Springs together next month.

It was announced Tuesday that future Wildcats, Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno, have been invited to participate in the 2025 USA Basketball U19 National Team training camp, which begins June 14. Pope will join them in an on-court coaching role as Johnson and Moreno fight to occupy two of the 12 roster spots for Team USA’s run at the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup in Switzerland.

Johnson (a gold medal winner at the 2024 FIBA U19 AmeriCup) and Moreno (a previous invite to training camp) are no strangers to being associated with Team USA, but this will be Pope’s first official role with the national program. Johnson and Moreno were also members USA Men’s Nike Hoop Summit Team, which beat the World Select Team 124-114 in overtime earlier in the spring.

The 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup runs from June 28 through July 6.

.@CoachMarkPope, @BruhJasperJ, and @malachimoreno24 will be heading to the @usabasketball U19 Training Camp this summer.

📰🔗 – https://t.co/G1XTay7HWV pic.twitter.com/bjwmDM8PKs

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) May 20, 2025

Johnson and Moreno will be two of 33 athletes fighting for those dozen prized roster spots. Team selections will ultimately be made by the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee. Seven players come from the college ranks, 13 are graduating high school seniors (class of 2025), and the final 13 just wrapped up their junior year of high school (class of 2026).

But the soon-to-be freshman Wildcats aren’t the only prospects to keep an eye on. Several of the 2026 invitees are linked to Kentucky. The likes of Tajh Ariza, Christian Collins, Jason Crowe Jr., Caleb Holt, Tay Kinney, Brandon McCoy Jr., Deron Rippey Jr., Jordan Smith Jr., and Tyran Stokes are all receiving some level of interest from Pope and the Wildcats. It certainly won’t be a bad thing for Pope to have extra face time with some of his top targets.

Team USA will be led by head coach Tommy Lloyd (Arizona), along with assistants Grant McCasland (Texas Tech) and Micah Shrewsberry (Notre Dame). Pope is one of three support staff coaches, joining Hubert Davis (North Carolina) and Nate Oats (Alabama).