Wildcats make the cut for Meleek Thomas; Malachi Moreno sets unofficial visit to UK

Recruiting never stops.

As the Kentucky Wildcats start to focus in on their top prospects for the class of 2024, John Calipari and his staff are also starting to fill out their big board for players they are interested in when it comes to the class of 2025.

As players in that class get ready for their junior seasons at the high school level, two players are starting to emerge as players to watch for the BBN.

First off is five-star guard Meleek Thomas. And his list is already dwindling down, as he has released a top-12 list over the weekend. The Cats made the cut.

Alongside Kentucky, the schools to make the list are Duke, Auburn, Tennessee, Kansas State, Indiana, UCONN, Michigan, Villanova, Miami (FL), and Pittsburgh.

The 6-foot-4 and 175-pound shooting guard out of Midland (PA) has scheduled official visits at Michigan (Sep. 8-10) and Auburn (Sep. 29- Oct. 1). He has also already unofficially visited Villanova, Indiana, Pittsburgh, and Penn State.

With this recruitment just now really starting to get going, it seems the Cats are in a good place for the talented guard. If they can get an official visit on the calendar soon, things could really start moving.

Thomas is currently ranked as a five-star player in the class of 2025 and is considered the No. 6 player in the class according to the 247 Sports Composite Rankings.

Alongside the list cut for Thomas, the Cats got some good news from an in-state prospect as well.

On Tuesday, Joe Tipton of On3 reported that Malachi Moreno, out of Great Crossing High School in Georgetown, will be taking an unofficial visit to Lexington and UK at the end of October on 10/28.

Alongside the Cats, Moreno has scheduled an official visit to Iowa (Oct. 7), with unofficial visits planned to Arkansas (Sep. 9), Cincinnati (Sep. 16), Notre Dame (Sep. 23), Tennessee (Sep. 30), Michigan (Oct. 14), and Ohio State (Oct. 21).

At 6-11, Moreno has risen quickly up the rankings in the class of 2025. Despite not holding an offer from Kentucky, when he spoke with Jack Pilgrim of KSR about his home-state school, here is what he had to say:

“They’ve been pretty hard on me, but they’re one of the only ones that haven’t offered me yet. I think once I show I’m more physical and become a tougher player, eventually it’ll come,” Moreno told Pilgrim. “They say they like me and want to keep in touch. What they’ve told others is I need to be tougher and more physical, so that’s what I’m going to work on.”

It sounds like John Calipari wants to see some more from Moreno as he heads into his junior season. Should be an interesting recruitment to watch as basketball season quickly approaches.

He is currently considered a four-star player in the class of 2025 and is considered the No. 57 player in the class according to the 247 Sports Composite Rankings.