No one knew how close Kentucky was to missing its prized point guard in the 2025 class. According to a recent interview with Larry Vaught, he was ready to commit to Dan Hurley and the Connecticut Huskies. Yet, Mark Pope was still able to get his prized recruit.

Lewis is a top 40 recruit from the D.C. area who was a late riser in the recruiting rankings. The six-foot-two-inch guard had a tremendous junior campaign for Sidwell and Friends School. Lewis went from a fringe top 80 prospect to a consensus top 35 prospect wanted by every blueblood program.

“In the spring he was in a space where he was trying to shop himself,” Pope said. “Then by midsummer, he was trying to tell people to stop bothering me, ‘I can’t talk to every single school in the country.’”

So how did the self-made top 35 prospect, near UConn commit end up at Kentucky?

In the summer, Mark Pope was on the verge of losing his featured point guard to Dan Hurley and the UConn Huskies.

“He was on the verge of cutting Kentucky,” Acaden’s father Jarett Lewis said. “His choice was going to be UConn.”

When Pope received this information, he immediately made the trip to D.C. with his full staff, determined to change the momentum. That trip was essentially to “hangout” with and understand Acaden, as the staff immersed themselves in the point guard’s daily life, which ultimately resonated with those closest to the recruitment process. They watched Lewis work out in his neighborhood of Trinidad, then spent time with him at his local barbershop and home.

“We live in the hood but they (Pope and Acaden) come down and hang out in the barbershop. There is no gimmick with Pope. He cares about where you are from, who you spend time with. If he likes you and wants you, he wants to understand you.”

That visit left a lasting impression, but Pope then continued traveling to D.C. weekly for a month to see Acaden, all kept under wraps. Jarett Lewis felt like his son was being recruited by Mark Pope as if he was another DC legend, Allen Iverson.

“I am floored because Mark and Jason had recruited him the hardest of any blue blood. Regardless of his ranking, Pope recruited him like he was Allen Iverson in his prime.”

The effort did not go unnoticed as Jarett wanted his son to take an official visit to Kentucky, and give them a chance.

“I don’t care if you cut Kentucky but the thing we won’t do is not give Mark Pope a chance to address any concerns you have. The thing you do better than anybody in the country is communicate and whatever fears and concerns you have, now is the time for you to hold Pope accountable,” Jarett Lewis told his son.

From the edge of being cut, Acaden had a “home-run” official visit in Lexington for Big Blue Madness.

“He didn’t care about seeing campus. He wanted this visit to be about basketball. It was the most basketball-oriented visit we had and what we wanted. He loved it all and decided Kentucky was for him.”

“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.”

Next season, Lewis is set to pair in a Kentucky backcourt with Jasper Johnson, also joining five-star big Malachi Moreno. A great start to Mark Pope’s first recruiting class.

With exhibition games now passed us, it’s a reminder that the season is just days away. With Kentucky winning both exhibitions by 71 points and 31 points, respectively, excitement is really starting to build in the Bluegrass.

The Wildcats were ranked 23rd in the preseason AP and Coaching polls. With an experienced team, the analytics have a lot of data to pull from and some believe that Kentucky is better than that ranking, while others believe they are worse.

H.U.M.A.N Poll (KenPom subscribers): 16th
Haslametrics: 17th
EvanMiya: 22nd
Bart Torvik: 23rd
KenPom: 43rd

Among doing this for teams, they have data on each team’s players as well.
Kenpom projected Kentucky’s most valuable player to be Wake Forest transfer
Andrew Carr. Andrew Carr was ranked as the #108 most valuable player in the
country. EvanMiya agrees with this, giving him a 4.54 Bayesian performance rating.

These data projections may be a bit skewed. Some of the rankings were very
interesting as seen here.

• Andrew Carr (No. 108)
• Brandon Garrison (No. 142)
• Lamont Butler (No. 145)
• Kerr Kriisa (No. 155)
• Amari Williams (No. 158)
• Otega Oweh (No. 167)
• Koby Brea (No. 174)
• Jaxson Robinson (No. 240)
• Travis Perry (No. 1,041)
• Trent Noah (No. 1,281)
• Collin Chandler (No. 1,632)
• Grant Darbyshire (No. 1,820)
• Ansley Almonor (No. 1,912)
• Walker Horn (No. 4,133)

Kentucky is currently listed to have seven players in the country’s top 200
most valuable players. However, the big shocker is the
projected value of BYU Transfer Jaxson Robinson.

Again, these projections are a bit skewed, as we do see Walk-on Grant
Darbyshire as being more valuable than Fairleigh Dickenson Transfer
Ansley Almonor.

Some guys were however listed as more valuable than some may
think. Brandon Garrison Oklahoma State Transfer, and former
McDonald’s All-American comes in at #142.

Garrison showed out during Kentucky’s Pro Day displaying
a great ability to defend and protect the rim. Garrison also showed a
fantastic motor and incredible athleticism. He is someone who I
foresee playing a huge role in the Cats Frontcourt this season.

Another surprise was Colin Chandler coming in at #1,632. Chandler
was a 4 Star prospect coming in at #33 in the 2022 Class. Chandler
took some time away from the sport to embark on a mission trip
overseas. He is starting to get back into the swing of basketball and is
someone who I think could surprise a lot of folks this season.
Overall, the National Media views Kentucky as a middle-of-the-pack
Top 25 team. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the
course of the season.

The next player up for a spotlight is a kid from a tough and rugged part of Kentucky, in Harlan County. Trent Noah was born on Dec. 28 in Corbin, Kentucky. His parents are Stacy and Dondi Noah and he also has a sister, Emerysn. A fun fact in his lineage, his grandfather, Charles “Perky” Bryant, who played football at Kentucky from 1961-63.

If you had told Trent Noah seven months ago that he would be in Lexington this coming fall, he probably would have found it flattering but probably inconceivable. At the time, the two-time Kentucky all-state player was already committed to Soth Carolina down in Columbia, South Carolina.

Meanwhile, Kentucky was in no position to take another recruit, with the typical top Calipari class heading in this fall, what could possibly happen to change the course of dozens of players? Well, that butterfly was the Muss bus heading to USC, which set off a chain of events that landed Mark Pope at Kentucky. What was once a foregone conclusion is now a possibility for a Kentucky kid to stay and play for his state school. 

Kentucky fans have been clamoring for shooting, and that’s exactly what you have with Mark Pope’s first freshmen class at Kentucky with Trent Noah being no exception. Averaging 29.9 points his senior year at Harlan County, he finished fifth all-time in scoring in Kentucky high school history.

Noah’s Sweet Sixteen run last year at the KHSAA will go down as one of the greatest collections of performances in the tournament’s history, going off for 48 points against Campbell County. It wasn’t just the points he scored, it was also how he did it and when he did it. His play brilliance carried Harlan to the state final where he eventually lost to Travis Perry, who we we will speak about later on in this series.

Being tabbed as one of the best shooters in his class, his skills and awareness make Noah the ultimate floor spacer. Adam Finkelstein, from 247 Sports, had this to say about him. “Strong-bodied wing and elite shooter of the basketball. His game starts with the three-point line.”

Noah’s skill set already bold wells for Mark Pope’s offense. If Trent did nothing else he just wanted to hone those skills that he already possesses, he would become a great player for Kentucky. However, if he does what every player does while they’re in college, which is growing, we could be looking at one of the most underrated pick-ups of Mark Pope’s young coaching career.

Trent is special at getting to his spot and with a 6’5, 220-pound frame as a freshman with time in the weight room, it will be difficult to keep him from his spots. With a shooting range that will make any marksman blush, Noah could thrive in a Mark Pope system for years to come. Before we get there, he must improve on his defense and get used to the pace and the strengths of college basketball. 

 The new regime leading Kentucky basketball has put an emphasis on keeping their high school players in Kentucky. So far the moves that have been made since the new coaching hire, one would say Mark Pope is definitely keeping his word, and Trent Noah is a prime example.