This past weekend was a big moment for Kentucky basketball, as the first Big Blue Madness of the Mark Pope era took place. In years past, the event has hosted multiple five-star recruits and this year was no different.

While the guest list was smaller due to USA Basketball junior mini camp, the Wildcats had two top recruits in attendance, 2026 five-star Anthony Thompson and 2024 four-star combo guard Acaden Lewis.

The latter is one of Kentucky’s biggest recruiting priorities in the 2025 class and was also on campus for an official visit as he prepares to make his college decision in early November. To help was five-star commit, Malachi Moreno.

While Moreno couldn’t make it to Big Blue Madness, he was able to meet with Lewis during his visit on Thursday and even took part in his photo shoot, as the pair posed together in Kentucky uniforms in Rupp Arena.

It helps to have a five-star commit just down the road to help recruit. Could we see the pair play together next season at Kentucky? Things are trending in that direction, but time will tell.

Also published on A Sea of Blue.

When Mark Pope was first hired by Kentucky in April, the biggest concern was if he could recruit. Within weeks, he assembled a staff and recruited the fifth-ranked transfer portal, including the likes of Jaxson Robinson, Amari Williams, and Lamont Butler.

Now nearly six months later, Pope has gotten some big high school recruiting victories, receiving commitments from five-star prospects Malachi Moreno and Jasper Johnson. While early, the Cats currently have a top-five class for 2025 and are the only program with multiple five-star commitments. Still going after multiple top names, the class is far from finished. In fact, another commitment may be on the horizon.

In an interview with the Sources Say Podcast, talking about his recruiting, Pope said that is currently in a chess match for one recruit.

“Recently, in the fall — I can’t name names, but we’re trying all kinds of different things,” Pope said. “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.”

Who could this player be? The Wildcats are still pursuing multiple five-star targets, but Pope’s comments are likely about Acaden Lewis or Caleb Wilson.

The former, a four-star combo guard, is expected to make a decision in early November, and will be in town for Big Blue Madness this Friday. The latter, a unanimous top-10 prospect, has been rumored to move his timeline up as well, however, there have been conflicting reports.

Only time will tell…

Top recruiting classes were the norm for Kentucky under John Calipari, but could Mark Pope pick up where his predecessor left off?

Pope’s first order of business as the coach of Kentucky was to assemble a staff and he added two of the best recruiters in the country to the staff in Alvin Brooks III and Jason Hart. Together they’ve already locked down in-state, five-star talents Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno. Currently sitting with the second-ranked class in 2025, Pope and Co have their eyes set on a few more top recruits, including two who are publicly hinting at joining forces in Lexington.

This past weekend, Kentucky hosted top-five target Caleb Wilson and it could not have gone better as they rolled out the carpet for him. Amidst the visit, fellow Wildcat target Acaden Lewis announced his finalists, Kentucky being one of them. To which Wilson replied, “come on over bro.”

The following day, Wilson posted photos from his visit, to which Lewis commented, “I wanna play w(ith) this guy.”

The most recent interaction came Tuesday night as Wilson and Lewis shared some cryptic emojis.

Recruiting is fluid and young prospects can say a lot of things. However, you have to like this for Kentucky as Wilson and Lewis are expected to make their final decisions this fall. If Pope can get commitments from both, it would be big for recruiting momentum, besting Calipari for Wilson and three other blue-blood schools for Lewis.

Current Kentucky commit Jasper Johnson is even doing his part to recruit them, sending a direct tweet to Wilson.