It appears that John Calipari isn’t going to pull a reverse Malik Monk on either Malachi Moreno or Jasper Johnson, the top two Kentucky natives in this year’s recruiting cycle.
There might have been some hope that Darius Acuff, Arkansas’ superstar point guard commit in the class of 2025, could help sway Johnson as his running buddy in Fayetteville but don’t expect that to happen with most analysts predicting Johnson to head to Alabama. At this point, it appears that Caleb Wilson would be the five-star commit Acuff will most likely to have a hand in steering toward the Hogs.
The 6’9″ power forward comes in as the nation’s No. 4 recruit and has an offer sheet including Kentucky, Alabama, and Duke. As an Atlanta native, though, Georgia Tech could make a run here since he’s an high achiever academically, says Kentucky Sports Radio’s Jacob Polacheck.
“But Arkansas continues to be a school that I hear a lot with Caleb Wilson,” Polacheck added on a recent podcast. “Darius Acuff is already committed there and him and Caleb have a close relationship, so that’s a school to watch out for.”
Johnson, who now plays for Overtime Elite in Atlanta, is a central Kentucky product whom many thought would be a Kentucky lean because his father, Dennis, is a former Kentucky football standout. At this point, however, it looks like Alabama is the most likely out of his purported top of three of the Crimson Tide, Wildcats and Tar Heels.
“I’m hearing Alabama has all the momentum heading into this commitment, which is expected in the next week or so, maybe two weeks,” Polachek said, before getting into the 6’4″ shooting guards struggles playing on the grassroots summer circuit with Team Thad alongside native Arkansans Courtland Muldrew and Isaiah Sealey.
“He struggled over the summer on the Nike EYBL circuit. He shot 38% from the field, 27% from three and 41 assist to 46 turnovers.”
Sure, this is a miss given Johnson is still a five-star top 12 national type player, but “there are a lot of good guards out there,” Polacheck adds.
Malachi Moreno Kentucky Bound over Hogs?
In most years, missing out on a homegrown product like Johnson would rub a lot of Kentucky basketball fans wrong. But that’s not the case this year after Malachi Moreno committed to Kentucky late Friday morning in front of 1,800 students at his high school gym in Georgetown, Kentucky. The 6’11, 230 pound in theory chose from Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Louisville, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Ohio State but in reality the writing seemed to be on the wall for him donning the Kentucky blue.
Although John Calipari initially offered him last October, Moreno has been making multiple unofficial visits to the UK campus from his home just outside of town to visit with UK coach Mark Pope and his staff.
There was little chance he would make such a public deal out of live-streaming his announcement on 247Sports’ YouTube channel unless he was sticking with the home-state program.
“This recruitment really came down to Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio State,” On3’s Joe Tipson told Polacheck in the video below. “Those were kind of the big three in his recruitment. He’s visited all three programs, but ultimately schools like Kentucky and Indiana have been generating the most traction for his commitment as he kind of nears this decision.”
Moreno ranks as the nation’s top center and is “only” rated as the nation’s No. 26 player in 247Sports’ composite. That relatively low status indicates that this commitment may matter much more from a publicity standpoint to Mark Pope than expected on-court production.
That is, Pope really needed to land either Jasper Johnson or Malachi Moreno given they are both natives. To maintain the impression he’s going to be able to keep Kentucky on par with what it did under John Calipari, he couldn’t afford to whiff on both.
“This is the test for Pope,” member KYCats715 wrote on the message board Cats Illustrated last week. “Jasper wasn’t going to come here under Cal so it’s unfair to judge him off that. If he can get Moreno he can prove that he has the ability to get dudes from this state and hopefully wherever.”
Good on Mark Pope for getting his first commitment of the 2025 class and avoiding public humiliation. However, in today’s college basketball, getting a true center as a true freshman just isn’t as valuable as it used to be. As good as, say, Dereck Lively II or Donovon Clingan were as true freshmen, they don’t hold a candle to what the likes of Karl Anthony-Towns, Tim Duncan or Shaquille O’Neal were able to do right out of high school in decades past.
This isn’t to say Malachi Moreno is overrated or will be a bust. As Tipton puts it, he’s “kind of a traditional big man, great hands, great size, can protect the rim, finish around the basket, kind of play out of the dunker spot. His range is still expanding, but just a really good player, really solid player, a great kid, just a really high character guy, and just a really good overall player no matter where he lands.”
Arkansas Basketball Fans with Last Laugh?
It’s just that like 99% of all true freshman centers, he’s going to be at a strength disadvantage right out of the gates. “He needs to put on weight and do all that,” analyst Jamie Shaw told Polachek.
The same went for Zach Edey, who took a few seasons to get rolling for Purdue. Or Walker Kessler, who needed a season under his belt before he really did damage as a sophomore at Auburn.
Of course, Kessler transferred before he showed out. His initial school, North Carolina, never got to enjoy the fruits of their staff’s work with him.
Every extra season you invest in a long-term project at the college level introduces a higher probability that project will go elsewhere to shine. Arkansas folks knows this well after its last staff spent a year on the willowy former blue-chip recruit Baye Fall, only to see the 6’10” center transfer to Kansas State.
Meanwhile, a five-star like Darius Acuff is essentially plug-and-play right off the bat in the modern college basketball world. He shouldn’t need a year or two to get up to speed as a point guard.
After Moreno’s commitment, expect some Kentucky fans are already rubbing it in the face of Arkansas basketball fans among others.
That’s all good and fine. Let them have moment in the sun. And, going forward after this point, let them have their four-stars over five-stars:
In the end, though, the Hogs are getting the guys who are more likely to make a splash right away.
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More on Malachi Moreno, Caleb Wilson and more here:
More on Arkansas basketball recruiting from BoAS here:
