New-look UK coaching staff finishes its first recruiting weekend. Here’s what happened.

Last weekend was the shoe circuit recruiting debut for Kentucky basketball’s new-look coaching staff.

Friday through Sunday was marked as an “evaluation period” on the NCAA Division I men’s basketball recruiting calendar. This meant the four UK coaches permitted to go out recruiting — head coach Mark Pope and assistants Alvin Brooks III, Cody Fueger and Jason Hart — hit the road to watch high-level high school prospects in action.

From the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) circuit event just outside Indianapolis to the Adidas circuit event in Texas, UK basketball coaches had their eyes on a ton of recruits over the last few days.

Here’s a look at where each UK coach was, which players they watched and more recruiting nuggets that emerged.

Mark Pope, new UK coaching staff watch recruits during live period

Pope, who has been Kentucky’s basketball coach for a little more than a month, spent most of the weekend just outside Indianapolis at the Nike EYBL event that was held at the Pacers Athletic Center complex in Westfield, Indiana.

The Nike circuit is considered the best of the shoe circuit leagues and features most of the highest-ranked recruits.

All four Kentucky coaches spent at least part of their weekend at the EYBL session.

For Friday’s opening slate of games, it was Hart who joined Pope in Indiana.

The first game Pope watched during this weekend’s live period was bursting with basketball talent. The matchup between Nightrydas Elite (currently top of the EYBL standings) and Team Final featured the following class of 2025 prospects on show:

▪ Five-star power forward Cameron Boozer (No. 2 overall player in the class per the 247Sports Composite).

▪ Five-star power forward Caleb Wilson (No. 4).

▪ Five-star guard Cayden Boozer (No. 17).

▪ Four-star guard Jerry Easter (No. 26).

Later Friday, Hart and Pope both watched class of 2025 standout guard Jasper Johnson, the former Woodford County High School star who remains near the top of UK’s recruiting list. Johnson, who plays on the EYBL circuit with Team Thad, was offered a Kentucky scholarship by former head coach John Calipari and took an official visit to UK in February.

The Hart-Pope duo capped Friday by watching three more five-star prospects in action: Top-ranked class of 2025 small forward AJ Dybantsa and top-ranked class of 2026 power forward Tyran Stokes (both of Oakland Soldiers) against standout guard Darius Acuff Jr. of The Family.

All three prospects previously held scholarship offers from UK during Calipari’s time with the Wildcats. Pope has re-offered a scholarship to Dybantsa. Stokes, who is from Louisville, is high school teammates with Dybantsa at Prolific Prep in California.

Pope also spent time Friday watching the Houston-based JL3 program, which boasts two other class of 2025 players to know: Four-star small forwards Hudson Greer and Shelton Henderson.

“Everything about him really is kind of selfless,” JL3 coach Torrence Botts told the Herald-Leader about Henderson. “People talk about the impact he might have on the court, but when you watch him play he plays so unselfishly. And then you look up on the court and then there you go, he has a solid game with some good numbers to show.”

Which high school players are on Kentucky’s radar?

With four coaches available to recruit last weekend, Kentucky made sure to spread its resources far and wide.

In addition to the Nike EYBL session in Indiana, UK also had a presence at the aforementioned Adidas event in Texas and at the Puma circuit event in Kansas.

Some of the other players that got attention from the Kentucky coaching staff last weekend included the following:

▪ Class of 2025 power forward Tounde Yessoufou (Team WhyNot on the Nike EYBL circuit).

▪ Class of 2025 small forward Trey McKenney (The Family on the Nike EYBL circuit).

▪ Class of 2025 guard Meleek Thomas (New Heights Lightning on the Nike EYBL circuit).

▪ Class of 2025 small forward Will Riley (UPlay on the Nike EYBL circuit).

▪ Class of 2025 guard Davion Hannah (Team Herro on the Nike EYBL circuit).

Team Herro is the AAU program sponsored by ex-Cat Tyler Herro, who was in attendance for last weekend’s EYBL session. Hannah is coached on Team Herro by Tyler’s father, Chris.

“His intelligence, he’s just very smart. He knows the game at a high level. He can see stuff before it even happens and obviously he’s athletic,” Chris Herro told the Herald-Leader about Hannah. “... He can shoot it, he can jump, he rebounds, he can pass the hell out of it. Stuff like that. Just an all-around really good player.”

▪ Class of 2026 guard Brandon McCoy (Arizona Unity on the Nike EYBL circuit).

▪ Class of 2025 center Malachi Moreno (Indiana Elite on the Adidas 3SSB circuit).

Moreno, a four-star recruit, plays high school basketball at Great Crossing in Georgetown.

“I think I just improved my physicality a little bit,” Moreno said at the Sweet 16 state tournament in March. “Last year, I was letting small people push me around. And this year (the goal) coming into it was just to not let that happen again. So that’s probably my biggest improvement this year.”

▪ Class of 2025 guard Jamarion Batemon (Kevon Looney Power 5 on the Adidas 3SSB circuit).

▪ Class of 2025 guard Mikel Brown Jr. (Team Loaded on the Adidas 3SSB circuit).

▪ Class of 2025 shooting guard Darryn Peterson (Team Phenom on the Adidas 3SSB circuit).

Like Dybantsa, Peterson was previously offered a Kentucky basketball scholarship by Calipari, only for Pope to re-offer that scholarship to him in recent weeks. Peterson took an official visit to Kentucky in March.

▪ Class of 2025 power forward Koa Peat (Compton Magic on the Adidas 3SSB circuit).

▪ Class of 2025 power forward Nate Ament (Team Loaded on the Adidas 3SSB circuit).

▪ Class of 2025 guard Kaden Magwood (Team Loaded on the Adidas 3SSB circuit).

Of course, the names to know with regard to Kentucky’s high school recruiting efforts will continue to evolve. Scholarship offers should flow in the days and weeks to come, following last weekend’s live period.

Kentucky set to host more players for recruiting visits this week

Last weekend’s live period was a temporary respite from the flurry of transfer portal activity that has dominated the Kentucky basketball offseason.

So far, Pope has 11 players lined up to play at UK next season, with eight of those arrivals coming via the portal. Pope has 13 scholarships to use for next season’s team, which leaves two scholarships currently unaccounted for.

Two more potential new arrivals will be taking recruiting visits to Lexington this week.

Starting Monday, former North Florida guard Chaz Lanier will be on a recruiting visit to UK. Last season, the 6-foot-4 Lanier averaged 19.7 points per game for North Florida and made 106 3-pointers while shooting 44% from 3-point range.

On March 16, Lanier announced that he would be declaring as an early entrant for the 2024 NBA draft, while maintaining his final year of collegiate eligibility. On April 24, Lanier entered the transfer portal. Earlier this month, he took part in the G League Elite Camp, a two-day event that gave NBA Draft prospects the chance to play in front of NBA and NBA G League scouts, coaches and front-office executives.

Pope watched Lanier play at that event.

Lanier visited BYU last weekend and is also expected to visit Tennessee. The Volunteers are viewed as Kentucky’s main competition for Lanier, who scored 30 or more points on four occasions last season.

Jamie Vinson, a 6-foot-11 center who was previously signed to play at Vanderbilt, will also be visiting Lexington this week. Vinson committed to and signed with Vanderbilt last fall when Jerry Stackhouse was the Commodores’ head coach. Former James Madison head coach Mark Byington now leads that program after Stackhouse was fired after five seasons.

Vinson, who is ranked as a three-star prospect by the 247Sports Composite in this year’s recruiting class, chose Vanderbilt in October over other scholarship offers that included California and Ole Miss.

Vinson reopened his recruitment in April and will begin his UK visit Monday. He’s also recently taken visits to South Carolina and Rutgers.

The full list of players that Pope already has in place for next season is as follows:

▪ First-year guards Collin Chandler (a former BYU signee), Travis Perry (a former Lyon County High School star) and Trent Noah (a former standout at Harlan County High School and former South Carolina signee).

▪ Second-year center Brandon Garrison (who played last season at Oklahoma State).

▪ Third-year guard Otega Oweh (who previously played two seasons at Oklahoma).

▪ Fourth-year forward Ansley Almonor (who previously played three seasons at Fairleigh Dickinson).

▪ Fifth-year guards Koby Brea (who previously played four seasons at Dayton), Lamont Butler (who previously played four seasons at San Diego State) and Kerr Kriisa (who previously played at Arizona and West Virginia).

▪ Fifth-year forwards Amari Williams (who previously played four seasons at Drexel) and Andrew Carr (who previously played two seasons each at Delaware and Wake Forest).

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