Why Malachi Moreno’s pledge to UK basketball was so important for the Pope recruiting era

Posted by Admin August 16, 2024 Basketball

It’s not often that the men’s basketball coach at the University of Kentucky has the luxury of a player anywhere close to five-star recruiting status playing in his own backyard.

It’s unbelievably rare, in fact.

Mark Pope found such a scenario waiting for him when he took over the Wildcats in April, his first few months on the UK job coinciding with Malachi Moreno’s final summer on the grassroots circuit in preparation for his senior season at Great Crossing High School, which is located just 14 miles up the road from Rupp Arena.

The presence of Moreno — a 6-foot-11, 230-pound center and the No. 25 recruit nationally in the 2025 class, according to 247Sports — might seem a gift to most observers. But the process of actually getting the promising big man to Lexington was far from wrapped up when Pope arrived. That made this pursuit a bit of a double-edged sword, from a PR perspective.

For a new coach with relatively little experience on the national stage — following in the immediate footsteps of perhaps the greatest recruiter in recent college basketball history — a swing and miss on a target like Moreno right out of the gate would be terrible optics.

Pope needed Moreno. On Friday morning, he got him.

That’s when the 17-year-old confirmed his commitment to the Cats, picking the local blue blood and its new head coach over a list filled with heavyweights. Not only did Pope get his guy, but he got Kentucky’s 2025 recruiting cycle off to a promising start and checked some major boxes as the early stages of his era in charge of the Wildcats continues.

For Pope and his coaching staff, this was a big one.

Aside from Charles Bassey — a Nigerian prospect who left Texas to play his final prep season for a pop-up program in Louisville — no recruit from a Kentucky high school has been listed higher than Moreno in the 247Sports Composite rankings since Bowling Green’s Chane Behanan, who committed to U of L way back in the 2011 class.

Moreno’s place (26th nationally) in those composite rankings — an aggregate of all the top recruiting services’ lists — is higher than such recent UK commitments as Reed Sheppard (43rd in 2023), Travis Perry (78th this year) and Trent Noah (110th this year), as well as every other Kentucky high schooler of the past 14 cycles.

“To me, it is definitely an important pickup,” 247Sports national analyst Travis Branham told the Herald-Leader.

Let us count the ways.

Great Crossing basketball star Malachi Moreno, right, poses with new Kentucky coach Mark Pope during a visit to campus earlier this year.

Moreno’s future with Kentucky

Setting aside Moreno’s clear talent and status as a potential five-star prospect — a big deal for a new head coach under any circumstances — the first UK commitment for the 2025 class will be bringing more of what Pope wants to campus next year.

“He understands this program. He understands what it means to this fan base,” Branham said. “And a kid like that is always going to have a very strong desire to go out there and wear that Kentucky jersey with a lot of pride, and put in all the work and energy and effort he has into helping the program.”

Pope has repeatedly preached a front-of-the-jersey mindset when discussing what he’s looking for in potential UK recruits, while stressing that he fully expects future NBA draft picks and five-star-caliber prospects as part of that process. In Moreno, he’s found both.

“You’re getting a kid born and raised in Kentucky, and he has that size to compete at this level, but he also has the fundamental and foundational skill set to continue to build on and improve on in the years ahead,” Branham continued. “So he should provide some valuable utility on the court, but more importantly, in this day and age, he should provide some good continuity and culture impact. Because you would anticipate a kid like Malachi is going to be here for four years.”

Four years?!

Branham later clarified that Moreno has the potential to move on to the pros more quickly than that, but he’s not regarded as a one-and-done prospect, and — with the NIL possibilities that come with being a local Wildcat who actually plays — there should be opportunity for plenty of financial gain while sticking around and fulfilling that potential in college.

“It’s a very rare luxury in this day and age of getting continuity,” Branham said.

And that’s going to be a process for Pope. In these early years, at least.

John Calipari left the cupboard completely bare when he departed Lexington for Arkansas after the 2023-24 season, all 12 of his scholarship players either out of eligibility, off to the NBA or hitting the transfer portal.

Pope and his coaching staff did an admirable job of building their first UK roster from scratch — 12 new scholarship players — but seven of those incoming Wildcats are in their final year of NCAA eligibility. That means a lot more turnover next offseason, and more work for Pope and company to once again plug some holes.

But that process has already begun. The three freshmen on this Kentucky roster all have close ties to either the program or its coach.

Perry and Noah — the top two high school players in the commonwealth last season — grew up UK fans and are likely to stick with the Cats for the long haul. Collin Chandler, who was long committed to Pope at BYU — one of the top-ranked recruits in that program’s history — was the first player to join UK’s class after Pope took the job.

Brandon Garrison, a former McDonald’s All-American who played just one season at Oklahoma State, projects as a multi-year Kentucky player. Otega Oweh is the other non-senior on this team, and he’s another instant-impact Wildcat who is expected to stick around.

Moreno constitutes one more talented building block for the program’s future.

The 2024-25 roster features two players likely to split minutes at the 5 spot — Amari Williams and Garrison, who have been challenging each other in the team’s summer practices. Williams is in his final season of college. Garrison’s return would set up a similar dynamic next year. Branham says that would be an ideal scenario for Moreno, who he sees playing relatively limited minutes as a freshman while gradually growing into a prominent role with Kentucky.

“And then make a much, much bigger impact in year two, especially when you consider he’s probably going to be playing behind Brandon Garrison. Which will be great for Malachi,” he said. “I think that’s something so often overlooked in these recruiting processes. Kids are like, ‘Oh, you have a kid at my position.’

“Well, it’s valuable and it’s helpful for you to come in and learn from an older, more experienced veteran, and take that pressure off of you, and then kind of mold into your own role.”

Moreno averaged 16.0 points, 13.3 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game for Great Crossing last season, helping lead the Warhawks to the state semifinals (where they were eliminated by Perry’s team, eventual Sweet Sixteen champs Lyon County). Moreno also shot 65.7% from the field as a junior, achieving those offensive numbers while playing alongside fellow star Vince Dawson, who averaged 13.9 shots per game to Moreno’s 9.6 attempts.

Moreno shot only 13 3-pointers (making four) in 37 high school games last season, but Branham said he has the ability to grow into more of a threat away from the basket, especially in Pope’s 3-point-happy offense that utilizes its bigs out on the floor.

All of that makes this a major recruiting victory for Pope, and the timing wasn’t too bad either. The commitment came earlier than expected, and that means Moreno won’t be making his previously scheduled official visits to Arkansas, Indiana, North Carolina and Ohio State.

There’s never time to rest on the recruiting trail, but the new Kentucky coaches can, at the very least, breathe a sigh of relief that they got their guy. And the negative PR that would have come with losing Moreno to an out-of-state program is no longer a worry.

“From an optics standpoint — just looking at it from a fan perspective — yeah, obviously it would’ve been a loss,” Branham said. “But PR doesn’t win you basketball games. You don’t take Malachi Moreno for the sake of the PR piece. You take him because you actually believe he can help your program. And I think he proved that over the past year.”

Jasper Johnson’s recruitment

The rarity of the situation makes it difficult to discuss Moreno without bringing up the subject of Jasper Johnson, another local kid who UK pursued well before Pope took the job.

On the surface, the circumstances are similar. Both are highly touted recruits in the 2025 class — Johnson is ranked by 247Sports as the No. 12 player nationally — and both are from central Kentucky, with Johnson beginning his high school career at Woodford County.

Johnson even has the bonus of being a UK legacy, the son of former Wildcats football star Dennis Johnson.

All of that would lead a casual observer to conclude that he’s Kentucky’s to lose, and — like Moreno — would be a recruiting PR disaster should he go to college elsewhere.

But the two situations are quite different.

Johnson — a 6-4 guard — left Kentucky to play last season at Link Academy in Missouri, and he departed that program this offseason with plans to finish his high school career at Overtime Elite in the Atlanta area. And while UK has remained hot on his trail through it all — both Calipari and Pope have recruited him diligently — there’s always been a sense that he very well could remain outside the commonwealth for college.

“Jasper has been more of a national recruitment,” Branham said. “I think getting out of the state may have made it more of a potentially easier decision for him to explore the options of Alabama and North Carolina. When you get out and you go somewhere else like that, your eyes are maybe a little bit more open to explore these other options.

“And even when Cal was here, it was not a given that they were going to get him. … That’s not to say (Pope) won’t, but I would say it’s a little different scenario when you’re talking about a kid that’s going to Great Crossing his entire career.”

In other words, Johnson to Kentucky would be a major pickup for Pope and the Wildcats’ staff, but this recruitment has been viewed as much more of a toss-up all along — compared to the pursuit of Moreno — and losing Johnson to another program has perhaps been the most likely outcome for most of this process.

Branham has reported that the five-star guard will make his decision by the end of August, and he told the Herald-Leader this week that he expects that timetable to remain intact. That might not be great news for the Cats, who have spent the past several weeks continuing to vigorously pursue Johnson while conventional wisdom has placed two other schools as more likely destinations.

“I would say it’s an extremely tight race right now at the top between Alabama and North Carolina, and I still think Alabama holds a slight edge on them,” Branham told the Herald-Leader. “Anything can happen between now and the end of the month, He’s expecting to be announcing toward the end of this month. I would say Kentucky’s got between now and then — they have quite a bit of work to do to kind of flip this one.”

Plenty of other possibilities are out there.

Who’s next for UK basketball?

Branham quickly mentioned another intriguing prospect when asked if UK might be among the top one or two schools for any 2025 recruits beyond Moreno.

“They’re increasingly becoming more and more of a factor in the recruitment of Braylon Mullins,” he said, noting that a major question surrounding Mullins has been whether he would venture too far away from home for college.

Mullins — a 6-5 guard from Greenfield, Indiana; regarded as one of the best 3-point shooters in the class — took an official visit to two-time national champion UConn a couple of weeks ago. Pope had him on UK’s campus in June and will bring him back to Lexington for an official visit in October. Before that, he has visits planned to Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, North Carolina and Tennessee.

“It’s looking like he is going to indeed stay closer to home,” Branham said. “And so the biggest two players that we’re starting to hear have emerged in this one are Indiana and Kentucky at this point. 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.”

Branham said Mullins — ranked No. 23 in the class — was the 2025 recruit “trending the most favorably in (UK’s) direction,” while others remain on the radar.

He specifically mentioned Atlanta forward Caleb Wilson (No. 6 nationally), Ohio forward Niko Bundalo (No. 24) and California forward Tounde Yessoufou (No. 26) as players that could have UK at or near the top of their lists.

Branham said the Cats have “ramped up” their recruitment of Wilson, who is planning to visit Lexington next month. He also expects UK to have a “fair shot” at Yessoufou, a rapidly improving prospect who plans to be in town for Big Blue Madness. (Kansas and Tennessee, for now, are the others to watch there.)

While Pope is expected to hit the transfer portal hard again in the spring to make up for the inevitable postseason departures, several other 2025 high school prospects possess UK offers, and some of those rising seniors have recruitments that are more difficult to sort out at this stage.

That’s something that, Branham says, has been a theme with this 2025 group.

“This class is moving historically slow. This is a unique class in the fact that you don’t really have a good idea at this point — like you usually do — of where these dominoes are ultimately going to fall. Not only Kentucky, but across all the blue bloods. … It’s pretty wide open right now.”