Mark Pope and his staff have already proven they can have major success within the transfer portal.
Are they about to land their first major high school recruit?
On Monday, 247 Sports recruiting expert Travis Branham logged a prediction in favor of the Kentucky Wildcats to land 4-star center Malachi Moreno. If that comes to pass, it would be the first signature high school recruiting win for Pope as Kentucky’s head coach. It would also be the highest-ranked commitment Pope has ever received in his coaching career, which began in 2009 as an assistant at Georgia.
Of course, Pope has never recruited with the brand and resources that Kentucky Basketball has until now, so he’s still an unknown in terms of how much success he can have recruiting elite high school recruits while coaching an elite program.
The fact that the 7-foot Moreno is one of the highest-ranked prospects the state of Kentucky has produced in recent memory adds more importance to the recruitment. The Great Crossing product is currently ranked No. 21 overall and No. 2 among centers in On3’s latest class of 2025 rankings.
Moreno is tentatively set to take an official visit to Kentucky on the weekend of October 11th, which is likely when Big Blue Madness will be. He’s also scheduled to visit Ohio State, North Carolina, Indiana, and Arkansas before then. For now, the October 11th trip will be his final official visit.
On3 reporters Joe Tipton and Jamie Shaw recently predicted Kentucky to land Moreno as well.
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