Mark Pope has 'intense chess match on the board' for top recruiting target

Mark Pope has pulled off a number of big-time recruiting wins since taking over as the head coach at Kentucky, starting with the first transfer portal cycle and into his first high school recruiting class. He stole Jaxson Robinson from the NBA, Koby Brea from a host of blue bloods and Travis Perry from — well, Pope kind of forced his hand on that one.

“Travis signed his NLI here, so I’m pretty sure it was legal to call him out in the press conference,” he told KSR. “He had to make a decision about what he was going to do, but after the press conference, he had no choice. It was beautiful [laughs].”

They had fun keeping Lamont Butler a secret from the college basketball world while Collin Chandler‘s recruitment was near and dear to Pope’s heart, the former top-35 prospect leaving home upon returning from a two-year mission trip to follow his head coach to Lexington.

“Every single one of these guys is super special,” Pope said. “It was interesting because our recruiting picture changed so much in about 10 days. We didn’t want to go too fast, we wanted to make sure that we started in the right space. There was a pause before we started getting commitments from guys because we couldn’t rush that part. It just had to be right.

“Then it was pretty quick after that, the makeup of our team in five days shifted enormously from guys feeling like, ‘I don’t know who I play with’ to guys be like, ‘Am I going to have a chance to play?’ That actually really fun.”

Fast forward to the high school class of 2025 and he’s already off to a hot start, earning commitments from a pair of top-25 prospects in Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno — both out of Kentucky. And the Wildcats have put themselves in a strong position with the likes of Acaden Lewis, Caleb Wilson, Chris Cenac and Mikel Brown Jr., among others, to wrap up a group that could wind up finishing as the best in the nation.

In fact, Pope could be on the cusp of landing his next high-profile addition — assuming he wins the hard-fought game of chess he’s competing in now.

He’s not allowed to name names, obviously, but the Kentucky head coach does say he’s got something special in the works. And it could be his favorite recruiting win since he first arrived in Lexington.

“Recently, in the fall — I can’t name names, but we’re trying all kinds of different things,” Pope told KSR. “I’m a terrible, terrible chess player, but I love doing it. I do have one intense chess match on the board with a recruit that is for a commitment.

“We’ll see if that comes to fruition. We’ll see. Details to come.”