Mark Pope made it a point at his opening press conference, and nearly every interview since, that he’s prioritizing in-state talent. At the end of the day, he wants kids who grew up around Kentucky and understand what it means to wear ‘Kentucky’ across their chest.

One of those is 2025 four-star center Malachi Moreno. Moreno is a standout forward from Great Crossing (Ky.) High School and has been a priority target for Mark Pope since he took over the Kentucky program.

Now the next step in Kentucky’s recruitment of Moreno is here — an official visit with the new staff. According to KSR.com, Moreno is expected to make his official visit the weekend of Big Blue Madness.

While Big Blue Madness hasn’t publicized its date yet, it took place on October 13 last year. So, you can ballpark a date around then for Moreno’s visit.

In total, Moreno has taken three visits to Kentucky just this year. The last one — which was last month — was the only visit in the Mark Pope era, however. 

Indiana, Arkansas, Tennessee North Carolina and Iowa are some of other the programs involved and the biggest threats to Kentucky. But, at the moment, it does appear Kentucky has a leg up on the rest of the competition. 

While it’s tough to say there is a ‘must-get’ prospect at this point in Pope’s tenure, this one could classify almost as that. Because of the emphasis Pope has made about in-state prospects, he needs to be able to land one in the critically important 2025 class.

Pope landed Travis Perry and Trent Noah in 2024 — two of the best players in the state. Now, it’s time to build on that and land one of the most talented center in the entire country.

He’s coming off of a strong AAU season with Indiana Elite, finishing 16-1 with a runner-up finish at the Adidas 3SSB Championship. He averaged 13.4 pionts, 8.4 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game.

Moreno is ranked the No. 25 overall player in the 247Sports composite rankings and the No. 2 center in the country.