KSR's Saturday takeaways from adidas 3SSB Championship

And we’re back! It was another long and busy day at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center for the adidas 3SSB Championship on Saturday. With just one day left on the schedule, we’ll be crowing some tournament champions on Sunday. It’s been an awesome experience so far in Rock Hill, SC filled with some of the most talented high school prospects in the country. There’s been some unreal basketball on display during my two days here.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s dive into my top takeaways from everything I saw on Saturday.

Does Mark Pope ever sleep?

For the third straight day, Kentucky head coach Mark Pope made an appearance in Rock Hill. He sat alongside assistant coach Cody Fueger for multiple games in the afternoon, checking in once again on a handful of his top targets (more on that in a minute). But what blows my mind is how much he just refuses to stay in one place.

After watching a couple of games, Pope left the gym and must have immediately hopped on a plane to his next destination: Peach Jam. On3’s Joe Tipton reported — roughly two hours after I saw Pope last — that the UK head coach was already courtside to watch the nation’s top-ranked 2025 and 2026 prospects, AJ Dybantsa and Tyran Stokes, respectively.

Kentucky’s Mark Pope, Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, BYU’s Kevin Young and plenty of others are currently watching AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 player in 2025, and Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 player in 2026.

Full list of coaches watching (On3+): https://t.co/Bl7QuEQLmv pic.twitter.com/lnsDR2w7XR

— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) July 13, 2024

This comes a day after Pope held practice on Friday morning before heading down to 3SSB later that afternoon. The man appears to be doing whatever it takes to get a leg up, and for that, we are thankful.

The championship game is set

Sunday will be filled with consolation games and loser’s bracket titles, but the ultimate goal that every team made this trip for was to win the 17U championship. A couple of major Kentucky targets will fight for the trophy, too.

Malachi Moreno and Braylon Mullins will suit up for Indiana Elite in a matchup with Utah Prospects Team Kessler 17U. Moreno was the star of the semifinals on Saturday against Koa Peat and the Compton Magic (with Pope watching from the baseline), dropping 21 points (10-16 FG) and 16 rebounds in an overtime victory. He was even named the MVP of Saturday by On3’s Jamie Shaw. Mullins, also a major UK target who added an Arkansas offer Friday night, contributed 13 points, five rebounds, three assists, and two blocks in the win.

Against Utah Prospects, Indiana Elite will have to deal with 2026 four-star point guard Ikenna Alozie, who was throwing down some monster dunks in his squad’s semifinal win over Darryn Peterson and Phenom United. Alozie is one of the many rising high school juniors who has heard from Kentucky since June. You don’t have to watch him play for long to see why — he’s a bowling ball in human form with a crazy vertical leap.

The championship game will tip off on Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. EST. I’ll be on the sidelines soaking it all in. Don’t be shocked if Pope makes another surprise appearance.

Moreno schedules Kentucky OV

Speaking of Moreno, the talented seven-footer from out of Georgetown has locked in his official visit with Kentucky. Following his impressive semifinal outing, Moreno told KSR that he’ll be in Lexington for the weekend of Big Blue Madness.

Ranked No. 25 overall in the 2025 class by the On3 Industry Ranking, Moreno says he also has official visits scheduled with Indiana, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Ohio State. A commitment is expected before November.

“It’s been going well,” Moreno said of his conversations with Kentucky. “I’ve been talking with (Mark) Pope every week, I talk to Coach (Cody) Fueger a lot, Coach (Alvin) Brooks. It’s been tight. I go up there every now and then just to check out practice, say what’s up to my friends Trent (Noah) and Travis (Perry). But it’s all love there and excited to see where it goes in the future.”

Nate Ament is really, really good

If there is one player outside of the Top 3 ranked players in the country that I would prefer Kentucky to land more than anyone, it’s five-star wing Nate Ament. Mark Pope might agree, as Ament was playing in one of the two games that he popped in for on Saturday. Pope also watched him play on Friday.

There’s a smoothness to Ament’s game that is tough to explain. It doesn’t exactly look natural, but he rarely makes mistakes and has such a fluid shot that it helps make up for the fact that he’s still adjusting to being a 6-foot-9 wing. He’s also been pulling in double-digit rebounds on a game-by-game basis this week while still acting as a guard on offense. His floor-stretching ability is exactly what Pope and his staff are looking for in Lexington. There’s a lot to love in his game and only minor holes worth nit-picking over.

Ament should be a top priority at this point and all signs point to that being the case.

Wildcat Select 16U has a talented backcourt

Wildcat Select 16U has a pair of rising high school junior guards who are only going to continue getting better. One of them is Newport four-star point guard Tay Kinney, ranked No. 33 overall in the 2026 class. Kinney has been one of the brightest stars all week, adding four high-major offers since Friday. Kentucky fans might already be familiar with the in-state product’s game and he told KSR on Saturday that a visit to Lexington is in the works.

Another name to monitor is Kinney’s running mate, Jon Sanderson out of Saline, MI, who is ranked No. 44 overall in 2026. There might not be a better backcourt in all of 16U than these two, who are both capable of playing off-ball while also exchanging floor general duties. Sanderson is more of a shooter while Kinney is an overall scorer, but he has plenty of juice to his game. There’s a reason why assistant coach Cody Fueger was courtside to watch these two play multiple times over the last two days.

Kentucky has yet to officially reach out to Sanderson, but after his play this week, he’s certainly on the radar.