‘Really genuine.’ One of Mark Pope’s first UK recruits talks about building relationships.

Before just about anybody else, Acaden Lewis got a look at what a Kentucky basketball practice looks like under new UK coach Mark Pope.

Granted, this only came about due to happenstance.

Lewis — a 6-foot-2, 170-pound lefty combo guard who is a class of 2025 college basketball recruit — took a mid-June unofficial visit to UK, which coincided with the Wildcats beginning summer practice ahead of the 2024-25 season .

He got to see only about 10 minutes of one of the first practices for UK this summer due to a delayed flight, but Lewis nevertheless came away with plenty of positives from his time in Lexington.

“It’s a big brand. (Kentucky) is one of the bigger brands in basketball, even without (John) Calipari,” Lewis told the Herald-Leader last week while competing with Team Durant at Peach Jam, the season-ending Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) event in South Carolina.

“It’s a great brand. You can see the people there really love Kentucky basketball.”

Lewis left that trip to Lexington with a UK scholarship offer. In more recent times, Lewis included Kentucky in a list of his top eight schools.

Lewis, who is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as a four-star prospect and the No. 47 national recruit in the 2025 class, is still considering the following schools for college: Auburn, Duke, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee and two-time defending national champion UConn.

“All eight are guard schools, and that’s where I want to go,” Lewis said. “I want to go to places where the guards excel (and) I can see myself making it to the next level. …And then head coaching relationships. All eight schools, I talk to the head coach as my primary recruiter.”

With this in mind, what does Lewis think about Pope, who has built a reputation as both a high-energy coach and recruiter?

“He’s just a great guy. Really genuine, and he’s preaching that I can come in and play right away,” Lewis said. “That’s something, obviously, everyone wants to hear going to the next level. But I really believed it, it seemed genuine.”

Among the prospects that have drawn the attention of Pope and his coaching staff early in their UK tenures, Lewis has distinguished himself with his brand of basketball.

A speedy combo guard with excellent defensive and passing instincts, Lewis has been a standout performer on both the Nike EYBL circuit and at the NBPA Top 100 Camp this summer.

“Just constant consistency,” Lewis said about what’s been the key factor for his play this summer. “…I just try to be as consistent as possible, be a great teammate. Just make sure my energy is great every game. I think that will lead to a good game.”

On the Nike circuit, Lewis emerged for Team Durant as one of the EYBL’s top scorers (16.7 points per game), offensive distributors (6.1 assists per game) and defensive players (1.5 steals per game).

At June’s NBPA Top 100 Camp in Orlando, Lewis was an all-star performer who averaged more than 15 points and nearly 4 assists per game in one of the best evaluation settings youth basketball has to offer.

“I try to manipulate the game. I try to think the game more than the other team. That’s usually my goal,” Lewis said. “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.”

“When you’re manipulating (the game), stuff just opens up.”

Acaden Lewis targeting fall commitment during early signing period

A quartet of Kentucky coaches — Pope, along with assistants Alvin Brooks III, Cody Fueger and Jason Hart — watched Lewis play on both the Nike circuit and at the NBPA Top 100 camp this summer.

It was after one of these viewings — the third session of the Nike EYBL season in Indianapolis, which was Pope’s first recruiting period as UK’s coach — when the Wildcats began to recruit Lewis.

“The coaching staff is great,” Lewis said of UK. “A lot of NBA expertise there.”

This is a not-so thinly veiled reference to Hart, a nine-year NBA veteran who was also previously the head coach of the NBA’s G League Ignite team. In addition to Pope, Hart is helping lead UK’s recruitment of Lewis.

Hart was courtside to watch Lewis play at Peach Jam last Friday night.

Among top recruits who are closing in on their senior high school seasons, Lewis seems particularly organized when it comes to his recruitment timeline.

The Sidwell Friends School (Washington DC) guard is planning to sign with a school during the early signing period, which runs from Nov. 13 through Nov. 20.

“Just head coach relationship, culture, obviously all these schools are really good schools. They put guys in the (NBA), they’ve done their job,” Lewis said when asked about what factors will help him make his college choice. “Just somewhere I think I can fit. … I’m going to make sure I (visit) all of them, see what it’s looking like and then base my decision on that.”

Lewis plans to reduce his list of eight finalists to three schools, and then commit from there. He’s expected to take another visit to UK after the summer.

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