After taking a visit to Kentucky, elite 2025 center Chris Cenac recaps Mark Pope’s pitch

As Kentucky basketball’s big board for the 2025 recruiting class continues to shrink, an elite big man remains a priority for Mark Pope and the Wildcats.

And he’s also a prospect who has experienced a meteoric rise in his recruitment.

This time last year, Chris Cenac Jr. — a 6-foot-10 center from New Orleans — was ranked by 247Sports as the No. 60 overall prospect in the 2025 recruiting class. Cenac was viewed as a good athlete with size who could make things happen in the post, while also flashing some perimeter potential.

But this spring and summer, Cenac went from being a well-regarded recruit to a bona fide star in the 2025 recruiting class. The 17-year-old Cenac is now a five-star prospect and is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 8 overall player in the 2025 recruiting group.

Cenac — the top-ranked center in the 2025 recruiting class, just ahead of UK commit Malachi Moreno — collected a whopping 21 high-major scholarship offers in a span of less than two months earlier this year.

This is a testament to Cenac’s skill development. He dominated the upstart Puma grassroots circuit this spring and was a standout player this summer at the NBPA Top 100 Camp in Orlando, Florida.

In that top evaluation setting — and in front of both Kentucky basketball coaches and the Herald-Leader — the versatile Cenac earned MVP honors after averaging 18.6 points, 11.4 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 1.6 steals per game.

“I think just being in the gym, trusting my game. I think that’s one of the main things,” Cenac told the Herald-Leader on Sunday when discussing his rise in the rankings at a USA Basketball Junior National Team minicamp in Colorado. “… My main thing is just development, getting two times better every year.”

During that NBPA Top 100 Camp in June, Kentucky offered Cenac a scholarship. Fast forward to now, and the Wildcats are part of an exclusive shortlist of schools trying to land Cenac for, at least, the 2025-26 college season.

Last week, Cenac dropped a list of his final seven college options under consideration. Kentucky made the cut, along with Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Houston, LSU and Tennessee.

“Just (those schools) being consistent in reaching out to me and my parents,” Cenac said. “Just what they’ve been able to offer to me, me doing my research on those coaches, seeing players that they had that they’ve put at the next level that play like me.”

This is down from a list of 12 schools that Cenac released in August, with Alabama, UConn, Louisville, Michigan State and Texas all being dropped from further consideration.

“My parents, they’ve helped so much, they’ve taken a lot of weight off my shoulders with the recruitment, talking to agents, things like that,” Cenac said. “My parents have been a big help.”

Obviously, this is an encouraging development for the Cats, whose 2025 recruiting class already includes a pair of five-star prospects in guard Jasper Johnson and the aforementioned Moreno.

Cenac — who is viewed as more likely to have an immediate impact at the college level than Moreno — took an official visit to UK in September.

“It was a great visit,” Cenac said of his trip to Lexington. “Coach Pope and his coaching staff, they’re all great guys… Had a great practice when I was in. That’s a school that I put in my top seven and I’m looking forward to seeing what they have to offer.”

“The NBA playing style, (Pope) preached on that a lot,” Cenac added. “That will get me ready for the next level. And (UK’s) development program.”

While Cenac told the Herald-Leader that he would like to commit in November, his main focus is on taking the necessary time to evaluate each of the seven college options he still has on the table. This could lead to Cenac’s commitment decision stretching into 2025.

Cenac has already taken official visits to Auburn, Houston, Tennessee and UK. All four of those visits have come this fall, and that leaves Arkansas, Baylor and LSU for Cenac to visit.

Former Kentucky assistant coach Chin Coleman is heading up Arkansas’ recruitment of Cenac, who will officially visit the Razorbacks this weekend. A visit to home state school LSU is on the docket for early November.

“Every school that’s in my top seven, that’s the thing they kind of preach: Coming in, being a guy that’s kind of positionless,” Cenac said. “Being able to do everything on the court.”

Chris Cenac looks to continue development after dominant summer

Cenac — who shared his official visit weekend at Kentucky with another five-star class of 2025 prospect, guard Mikel Brown Jr. — has switched schools for his final high school season.

After winning multiple state titles in Louisiana at New Orleans’ Isidore Newman School (the alma mater of NFL Super Bowl winners wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and legendary quarterbacks Eli and Peyton Manning), Cenac will play at Missouri’s Link Academy as a senior.

That’s the same school that Johnson, the UK basketball commit and former Woodford County High School star, played at last season as a high school junior. Johnson is now at Atlanta’s Overtime Elite for his senior season.

This move represents the desire of Cenac — who won a gold medal this summer with the United States at the FIBA Under-17 World Cup — to continue to improve ahead of his arrival at the college level.

“I would say very versatile,” Cenac said when asked to describe himself as a player. “I can play inside out. I play off of mismatches. If I have a little guy (on me), post him up, put him under the rim. If I have a slower guy, just take him off the dribble and shoot over him. And I can guard multiple positions, switch off pick and rolls. I’m just very versatile, I can do really everything on the court.”

New Link Academy head coach Chad Myers has a roster this season with six prospects from the class of 2025 who are ranked in the top 135 of the 247Sports Composite. This underscores just how competitive Link Academy practices will be, and how much Cenac stands to benefit from them.

“Just being a better leader, that’s what I’m big on right now at Link,” Cenac said. “Being a better leader, (developing) better IQ, being able to do everything on the court and just improve, all-around, my game.”

Kentucky, whose coaches watched Cenac play at this summer’s FIBA Under-17 World Cup, still has several irons in the fire when it comes to 2025 big men.

The Wildcats already have a commitment from Moreno, the Great Crossing High School star who became Pope’s first 2025 commit in August. In addition to Cenac, the Wildcats are also heavily pursuing power forward Caleb Wilson from Atlanta. Wilson also took an official visit to UK in September.

Only five players from this season’s UK basketball team will still have NCAA eligibility for next season, and center Brandon Garrison is the only true frontcourt player of this group.

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