‘I can start a trend.’ Mark Pope’s first 2025 commit is recruiting others to Kentucky.

Mark Pope and Kentucky basketball are off the board when it comes to recruiting the 2025 class.

Friday morning’s commitment from Great Crossing High School star center Malachi Moreno — who picked UK from a shortlist of eight schools in a commitment ceremony held inside the Great Crossing gym in Georgetown — means the UK program now has a platform to build from when it comes to pursuing other top high school seniors.

And it’s Moreno himself who appears eager to lead the charge.

When speaking to reporters following his commitment to Kentucky, the 6-foot-11, 230-pound Moreno exuded confidence when it came to pitching other top recruits on coming to Lexington.

“I think I can start a trend and get people to follow my decision and come home,” Moreno said Friday.

Moreno is more than just a local high school star who opted to stay home for college. Ranked by the 247Sports Composite as a four-star recruit and the No. 26 overall player in the 2025 class, Moreno is a college basketball prospect with national name recognition.

And with this stature comes plenty of connections.

This summer alone, Moreno participated in high-level recruiting showcases with some of the nation’s best high school players. These events included the Adidas EuroCamp in Italy, the NBPA Top 100 Camp in Florida and the Under Armour Next Elite 24 recruiting showcase in Brooklyn.

On the grassroots Adidas circuit, Moreno was a standout performer this spring and summer for Indiana Elite, which means Moreno played alongside and against plenty of other talented prospects that Kentucky and Pope are also pursuing.

Moreno’s national profile means his Rolodex of other recruits is deep. If Friday morning was any indication, Moreno plans to use it to try and add to Kentucky’s 2025 recruiting haul.

“I … have a list of people I want to text,” Moreno said.

Malachi Moreno makes recruiting pitch to Jasper Johnson

With Moreno now committed to UK, focus has already shifted toward another top class of 2025 recruit with connections to Central Kentucky.

Jasper Johnson — the five-star shooting guard who began his high school career at Woodford County — is set to make his college commitment by the end of the month. While he is down to a final five of Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisville and North Carolina, Johnson’s recruitment is really between the trio of Alabama, Kentucky and UNC.

Just minutes after cementing his own college future, Moreno had already trained his attention to making a recruiting pitch to Johnson, who is the son of former UK football star Dennis Johnson.

“You know where home’s at, Jasper,” Moreno said to thunderous applause following his commitment to UK, which was streamed live online on the 247Sports YouTube page.

“I talk to him every now and then,” Moreno added about his relationship with Johnson. “I’m just constantly telling him, ‘There’s just no place like home.’ Like, BBN loves us, and we can say we got to wear Kentucky across our chest. It’s a dream we’ve both had since we were little kids.”

It’s difficult to determine what amount of sway, if any, a recruit can have when it comes to the college choices of other prospects.

But there’s at least reason to believe Moreno — who is the preseason favorite to win Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball award in 2025 — has the charisma and character to make a compelling argument that UK is the place to be.

“If I was another top-level kid … I would gravitate towards (Moreno),” Great Crossing head coach Steve Page said about his star player, who averaged 16.0 points, 13.3 rebounds and 3.7 blocks last season for a team that reached the Sweet 16 state tournament semifinals.

“He’s a good kid. He’s unassuming … He’s not going to pressure kids into coming (to UK). He’s going to tell them why he did, and why they need to play (at UK) … He’s probably played with every other kid that Coach Pope is recruiting.”

Plenty of recent precedent exists for top boys basketball talent from Kentucky opting to go to college at UK.

Reed Sheppard (North Laurel), Travis Perry (Lyon County) and Trent Noah (Harlan County) all offer examples of Kentucky kids who chose to follow their basketball dreams at the state’s flagship school.

“Seeing them live out their dreams as well, they all grew up in Kentucky, they all wanted to put that Kentucky uniform on,” Moreno said. “So I think just seeing them live out their dreams, it showed me I wanted to live out mine.”

Perry, specifically, is notable with relation to Moreno. Perry also played AAU basketball for the Indiana Elite program and Moreno described the two as “best buds.”

With Perry not projected to be a one-and-done player at UK, he and Moreno will likely share the court for the Cats starting with the 2025-26 season.

“I actually have to call him after this,” Moreno said Friday about a planned chat with Perry. “It’ll be a fun talk to now get to say that we’re teammates.”

UK is also recruiting one of Malachi Moreno’s AAU teammates

Moreno isn’t the only member of this year’s Indiana Elite squad — which reached the Adidas 3SSB circuit’s championship game — that Kentucky basketball is making a priority in the 2025 class.

Braylon Mullins , a four-star shooting guard from Greenfield, Indiana, also falls into that camp.

Known as an elite shooter, the 6-foot-5 Mullins was a breakout star on the Adidas grassroots circuit this year and knocked down 80 jump shots for Indiana Elite, which was the third-most among all Adidas circuit players in the 17-and-under age group.

According to Synergy Sports, Mullins ranked fifth on the circuit in offensive efficiency among volume scorers: Mullins averaged 18.9 points per game and 1.1 points per possession for an Indiana Elite team that ranked fourth in the league in overall offensive efficiency.

From a stylistic standpoint, Mullins and a Mark Pope offense would be a match made in Kentucky basketball heaven.

And — potentially with Moreno’s help — there’s plenty of belief that Kentucky is a real player for Mullins, who has officially pared his recruiting list down to 10 schools.

Mullins is still considering Alabama, Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina, Purdue, Tennessee and two-time defending national champs UConn, in addition to Kentucky.

A smattering of official visits highlight what should be an active fall in Mullins’ recruitment. He has already taken an official visit to UConn, and he has trips set up in September to Michigan, North Carolina and Indiana, and in October to Duke, Tennessee and Kentucky.

That UK visit (scheduled for Oct. 25) is the last of the bunch and is set to coincide with a football home game against Auburn.

Last week, 247Sports national basketball analyst Travis Branham told the Herald-Leader that proximity to home is a likely factor in Mullins’ recruitment.

“The biggest two players that we’re starting to hear have emerged in this one are Indiana and Kentucky at this point,” Branham said last week about Mullins’ recruitment. “I would anticipate he’s not going to take all these visits, and that he’s going to cut this list probably further down, and it’s going to be a decision between the regional powers.”

Lexington is less than three hours from Mullins’ hometown of Greenfield, which is part of the Indianapolis metro area. This spells good news for Pope, who already hosted Mullins on UK’s campus in June when Pope extended a Kentucky basketball scholarship offer to him.

Moreno’s commitment to UK can only serve as a positive in this continued pursuit.

Whether it’s by making a last-minute recruiting pitch to Johnson, or by putting in a good word for UK with his AAU teammate Mullins, the expectation is that Moreno will be a foundational piece of Pope’s first true high school recruiting class at Kentucky.

His effectiveness as a recruit who intends to go out and do some recruiting himself remains to be seen. But his steadfast belief in Pope during the early stages of his program in Lexington is clear.

“He’s coming in at a new job, so it’s just a different feeling right now,” Moreno said of Pope. “But I feel like we’ll get back to that championship level.”

Herald-Leader staff writer Ben Roberts contributed to this article.

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