Kentucky basketball is already well positioned when it comes to the 2025 recruiting class, with Mark Pope having landed recent commitments from five-star guard Jasper Johnson and four-star center Malachi Moreno.
These commitments came before the fall official visit season meaningfully got underway, which means plenty of highly touted prospects are still set to make trips to Lexington in the coming weeks to evaluate UK as a potential college basketball destination, with Johnson and Moreno already in the fold.
Kentucky set for busy time with visitor on campus ‘every day’ this week
UK’s on-campus recruiting efforts this fall will begin in earnest Friday, when five-star power forward Caleb Wilson takes an official visit to check out the Wildcats.
Ranked by the 247Sports Composite as a five-star recruit and the No. 4 overall prospect in the 2025 class, the 6-foot-9, 205-pound Wilson has UK included among his final 12 college options.
Wilson’s list of college finalists also includes Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Central Florida, Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oregon, Southern California and Tennessee.
Wilson, who is from Atlanta, will have his weekend visit to UK coincide with a major Kentucky athletics event: UK football is hosting No. 1 Georgia on Saturday night at Kroger Field.
Class of 2025 recruit Caleb Wilson will be taking an official visit to UK this weekend.
MARK POPE HAS RAMPED UP RECRUITMENT OF CALEB WILSON
Wilson has been a longtime Kentucky recruit, and he’s a prospect whose recruitment by the Wildcats has spanned several coaching staffs. Wilson first picked up a Kentucky basketball scholarship offer in late June 2023 when John Calipari led the UK program.
Kentucky pursued Wilson aggressively while Calipari was the coach in Lexington, with Wilson visiting last October for UK’s Big Blue Madness event at Rupp Arena.
“I’ve always been a Kentucky fan,” Wilson told the Herald-Leader in August 2023. “I’ve never had a dream school but I’ve always liked Kentucky, I like Rupp Arena. (It’s a) big stage.”
Following the offseason coaching change from Calipari to Pope, UK appeared to be losing ground in Wilson’s recruitment. In May, during the first live recruiting period of Pope’s tenure at UK, Wilson didn’t list the Wildcats among the schools that were pursuing him the hardest.
But UK had a front-row seat (during live recruiting periods) to virtually all of Wilson’s AAU games with the ultra-talented Nightrydas Elite squad on the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League circuit. That Nightrydas Elite team went on to win the 17-and-under Peach Jam championship, with Wilson being named the Peach Jam Defensive MVP.
Given this, it proved to be just a matter of time before Pope inserted Kentucky back into Wilson’s recruitment.
“My catch-and-shoot game has gotten way better,” Wilson said in May about his basketball development. “Really just playing off the catch. I really wanted to work on that, and I feel like it’s getting better the more and more I’m able to do it, and really defense.”
Kentucky’s newfound commitment to making Wilson a priority recruit was on display last week. On Sept. 4, Pope and three UK assistants were on hand to watch Wilson during a morning workout in Atlanta.
Following Wilson’s visit to UK this week, a flurry of recruiting activity will continue for the Cats into the fall. Later this month, two other five-star recruits — point guard Mikel Brown Jr. and center Chris Cenac — will be on UK’s campus.
Big Blue Madness on Oct. 11 will, as always, be a key recruiting event for the Wildcats ahead of Pope’s first season as head coach. The already-committed Moreno and power forward Tounde Yessoufou are expected to be among the visitors for that event.
Class of 2025 recruit Caleb Wilson attended Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness in Rupp Arena before last season. The forward from Atlanta will be back in Lexington this weekend.
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