Basketball

Mark Pope set to host his first high-profile, high school recruit for UK basketball visit

Published

5 months ago

June 3, 2024

Admin

New Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope will be hosting his first high-profile, high school recruit in Lexington this week.

Will Riley — a five-star, class of 2025 small forward — will be taking an official visit to Kentucky from Tuesday to Thursday. Riley, who is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 16 overall player in the 2025 recruiting group, also will visit Alabama this week.

Riley will visit those two SEC schools after spending Monday taking a visit to Illinois.

The 6-foot-8, 180-pound Riley has been tearing up the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) circuit this spring while playing for UPlay Canada. Through four regular season EYBL sessions, Riley is averaging 21.9 points and 2.5 assists per game.

Among Riley’s best performances this year on the EYBL circuit were the four games he played in May in Indiana during the only EYBL session so far that college coaches and recruiters were permitted to attend.

Will Riley was named MVP of the 2024 Basketball Without Borders Global Camp in Noblesville, Indiana, in February.

Across those four games with hundreds of college coaches in the building, Riley averaged nearly 26 points per contest. That included scoring outbursts of 42 and 29 points.

During that EYBL session in Indiana, Pope and new UK assistant coach Jason Hart were courtside to watch Riley play.

A versatile offensive threat, Riley is shooting 49.6% from the field and 31.7% on 3-pointers with UPlay Canada this Nike EYBL season. He’s put up a fair amount of shots as well: Riley has attempted at least 15 shots in nine of UPlay’s 15 games.

Riley is a strong candidate to reclassify from the 2025 recruiting group to the 2024 class.

Pope and the Wildcats have filled 12 of 13 scholarship spots for the 2024-25 roster, which means there’s space for Riley on next season’s UK squad should a Kentucky commitment and a reclassification both occur.

In April (following Pope’s appointment as the next UK basketball coach), Riley listed the Wildcats among his top post-high school basketball options. That list included Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky and the National Basketball League (NBL), the top professional men’s basketball league in Australia and New Zealand.

While Riley’s recruitment by UK began under former coach John Calipari, it’s clear Pope and his new-look coaching staff have made the young Canadian standout an early recruiting priority.

Riley — who plays prep basketball at The Phelps School in Pennsylvania — would add to an already prestigious list of Canadian-born players to suit up for Kentucky.

That group already totals seven players, with notable names such as Jamaal Magloire (1996-2000), Trey Lyles (2014-15), Jamal Murray (2015-16) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2017-18).

So far, Pope has recruited or retained three traditional freshmen for the 2024-25 UK team: Collin Chandler (originally a class of 2022 prospect who previously committed to Pope at his former school, BYU), in-state star Trent Noah (who flipped his college commitment from South Carolina to Kentucky) and Travis Perry (the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky boys high school basketball history who previously committed to Kentucky under Calipari).

Riley is one of several class of 2025 prospects being pursued by Pope, along with the likes of guard Jasper Johnson, small forward AJ Dybantsa and center Malachi Moreno, among other players.