A top Kentucky basketball recruit for coach Mark Pope in the 2025 class has finally scheduled his official visit to Lexington.
Acaden Lewis — a 6-foot-2 point guard from Washington, D.C. — will be taking an official visit to Kentucky this weekend, which will include UK’s Big Blue Madness on Friday night. The visit will run from Thursday to Saturday, per 247Sports.
Lewis — who is expected to commit to a college this fall — is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as a four-star prospect and as the No. 36 overall recruit in the 2025 class.
A talented, left-handed backcourt player, Lewis is down to just three schools in his recruitment: Duke, Kentucky and two-time defending national champion UConn.
Both the Blue Devils and Huskies have already gotten recruiting visits from Lewis.
Lewis officially visited Duke in October for that program’s annual Countdown to Craziness event. Lewis took a trip to UConn in September. This means the Wildcats will get the final visit of Lewis’ recruitment.
Lewis was on an unofficial visit to Kentucky in June — which coincided with the start of Kentucky basketball’s summer practices — when he picked up his UK scholarship offer.
“He’s just a great guy. Really genuine, and he’s preaching that I can come in and play right away,” Lewis told the Herald-Leader in July about Pope, UK’s new coach. “That’s something, obviously, everybody wants to hear going to the next level. But I really believed it, it seemed genuine.”
All three schools remaining in Lewis’ recruitment are bluebloods.
Duke is still without a commit in the 2025 class. UConn landed its first 2025 commitment in late September, when five-star guard Darius Adams gave a verbal commitment to the Huskies.
Kentucky, of course, already has two class of 2025 commitments from guard Jasper Johnson and center Malachi Moreno, both Kentucky natives. The Wildcats are the only program in the nation with commitments from multiple players in the top 70 of the 247Sports Composite rankings: Johnson is ranked as the No. 14 recruit, while Moreno is ranked 24th.
Earlier this month, Lewis told 247Sports that he’s planning to commit to a school in early November.
“I’m really just looking for an opportunity,” said Lewis, whose defensive and passing instincts earned him praise on both the Nike grassroots circuit and at the NBPA Top 100 Camp this summer.
“I need to see who else coming in the class, rosters, who’s coming back, who’s leaving and stuff like that.”
On the Nike circuit, Lewis emerged for Team Durant as one of that league’s top scorers (16.7 points per game), offensive distributors (6.1 assists per game) and defensive playmakers (1.5 steals per game).
At June’s NBPA Top 100 Camp, Lewis was an all-star performer who averaged more than 15 points and nearly 4 assists per game in a top evaluation setting.
Kentucky has made in-home visits with Lewis, who plays at Sidwell Friends School in the nation’s capital. UK assistant coach Jason Hart, a nine-year NBA veteran who was previously the head coach of the NBA’s G League Ignite team, has helped lead Kentucky’s recruitment of Lewis.
“I try to manipulate the game. I try to think the game more than the other team. That’s usually my goal,” Lewis told the Herald-Leader in July. “I’m not only playing the other team we’re playing, but I’m playing the other coach. … I’m really deceptive, great touch around the rim and I can shoot the ball.”
While UK basketball already has two commitments in the 2025 recruiting class, there’s plenty of space for Pope to bring in more high school prospects for next year’s team.
Seven players on the 2024-25 Kentucky basketball roster will be out of NCAA eligibility after this season. The UK scholarship players who will still have eligibility after this season are guards Collin Chandler, Otega Oweh and Travis Perry, forward Trent Noah and center Brandon Garrison.
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