Acaden Lewis no longer plans to play for Kentucky coach Mark Pope. (Kentucky Athletics Photo)
Point guard Acaden Lewis was set to commit to Connecticut before a late visit to Washington, D.C., by Kentucky coach Mark Pope and assistant Jason Hart to see Lewis (that even included a stop at the barbershop) swung his commitment to the Cats.
He signed with UK in November and both Lewis and his father were all in with the Cats and even sent clothing items to flood victims in eastern Kentucky.
However, Kentucky has four guards returning off this year’s team, signed guard Jasper Johnson and has added two guards in the transfer portal. Kentucky is also still in contact with other guards in the transfer portal.
Those numbers helped lead to Acaden Lewis announcing late Thursday night that was de-committing from Kentucky and has asked for his release that Pope certainly will grant.
“This was an incredibly difficult decision, but I have to do what’s best for my future,” Lewis told ESPN’s Jonathan Givony. “Thank you to Coach Pope and the whole Kentucky staff for all they’ve done for me so far.”
He also released a statement to ESPN:
“I will always be grateful to Coach Pope and the entire Kentucky staff for believing in me. It is clear Kentucky is a special place with an amazing fanbase, but as I reflect on what is best for my future, I have decided to reopen my recruitment. This was an incredibly difficult decision, but after a lot of discussion with my family and people I trust, I feel this is necessary.
“This is not in any way a reflection of any negative feelings towards Coach Pope and Kentucky. I appreciate your understanding and am excited for what the future holds.”
His father, Jarett, certainly has the same sentiment.
“Still a HUGE UK fan and excited to watch this team that Pope has put together compete,” Jarett Lewis said in a text message he sent to me.
Lewis, who missed part of last season with an ankle injury, is rated the 35th best prospect in the 2025 247Sports rankings for the class of 2025 and the fifth best point guard.
Lewis’s decision could be based primarily on playing time, or in today’s college athletics, it could be a business decision based on perhaps making more money at another school. Or it could be a combination of both.
Kentucky’s roster will survive the hit, but from a perception standpoint, it is a blow to Pope’s recruiting reputation. He added three freshmen after his late hiring for the 2024 season. Travis Perry had already signed with UK and stayed on with Pope. Collin Chandler had committed two years ago to Pope at BYU and followed him to Kentucky. Trent Noah had signed with South Carolina, changed his mind, and then signed with home state Kentucky after Pope’s arrival.
Pope signed Johnson and Malachi Moreno, a 7-foot center, in this year’s recruiting class along with Lewis. Johnson and Moreno are both Kentuckians.
That means in two years Pope has added four Kentuckians and one player already committed to him at BYU in his freshmen signing classes.
Pope has excelled in the transfer portal, and stat guru Evan Miyakawa has UK’s transfer portal class ranked second nationally behind only Michigan.
The Wildcats have added a commitment from third-team All-ACC point guard and Pittsburgh transfer Jaland Lowe to serve as its starting point guard next season but now will likely need to add a backup point guard or hand the job to rising sophomore Travis Perry.
6 Responses
I disagree about the “perception” regarding a player switching schools especially since UK is loaded, even over-loaded with guards.
UK has more tattoos than needed for a lot of seasons. A few are ok, but let’s keep it a bit clean.
Genuine Forwards and agile center over 7’’ Is worth a lot more than some guard concerned about too much competition.
I want to see the KY guys getting a lot of minutes, including Moreno even as a freshmen. Perry, Noah & Moreno with Oweh & Garrison is a solid core of players I would sure like to see get 12 to 15 minutes together. I also hope to see more players get decent minutes in the first 5 to 10 games to see who can cut it. 3 to 5 minutes every other game is not going to reveal much.
What about Jasper Johnson? He’s a Ky kid.
I think the headline of the article is very inaccurate. I don’t see this hurting Pope’s HS recruiting at all. When you are just the 35th best recruit and the 5th best at your position as a high school player, you cannot expect to go to a Blue Blood program and start or even start out with significant minutes. You might be able to, but it will be because you earned it in practice and wasn’t afraid of the competition.
Power conference teams are now able to go fishing in the portal and pick up kids from other Power schools and mid-major schools that have showed they can play at a top level. They have a much better resume and better experience than most all HS players. HS players have to learn they need to earn what they get when they move up to college and on most all Power Conference teams, the HS players battle starts day one with earning a spot on the team and then in the rotation.
Pope does a great job of using all of his players and getting them minutes and I think this Lewis kid will have a hard time finding more minutes at another top school than he would have gotten at UK. If he is good enough Pope would get him the minutes, but it doesn’t sound like he wants a lot of competition or was just looking for more money. It is a shame because more competition will make him better in the long run.
Lewis left because there were too many guards on the roster and he had no interest in coming off the bench in a limited role. Incoming Freshman are looking for playing time above all else. When they become sophomores, money becomes a co-number 1 goal. Nobody cares about winning championships anymore.
He would have gotten extended playing time as PG2. Any other coach in the country would recruit over a committed player if the portal player was a proven, seasoned star. Just a part of the portal madness.
Kid named Booker wasn’t a starter – things turned out pretty well for him.