ROCK HILL, S.C. — Class of 2025 big man Malachi Moreno will have things figured out in a few months.
The national top-25 4-star center announced his final eight schools a couple weeks ago — Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisville, North Carolina, Notre Dame, and Ohio State.
There are many who believe there are two schools who stand out above the rest for the 7-footer from Georgetown, Ky. — Kentucky and Indiana.
The Wildcats are the home team for Moreno. Georgetown is less than a half an hour from Lexington, and he’ll tell you UK is a program that he followed growing up.
Kentucky went through a highly publicized coaching change during the offseason, but that hasn’t changed Moreno’s perception of the hometown school.
“It hasn’t changed things too drastically, because Kentucky’s always been Kentucky,” Moreno told The Daily Hoosier on Wednesday.
Kentucky hired program alumnus Mark Pope, and he’s been pushing hard to convince Moreno to stay home.
“Coach Pope is a big guy, he loves to coach big guys,” Moreno said. “He loves the way I pass. He likes facilitating with his bigs. So I’d say that’s a way things are different with them (since Pope was hired.)”
Indiana has long been thought of us a legitimate contender to land Moreno in the class of 2025.
A couple weeks ago, his Indiana Elite 2025 teammate Braylon Mullins told The Daily Hoosier it was Moreno’s idea for AAU teammates Moreno, Mullins and Trent Sisley to set up their officials on the same weekend.
Moreno said that was indeed the case.
“It was (his idea),” Moreno told The Daily Hoosier. “Once (IU assistant) Coach (Brian) Walsh told me what the dream 2025 class was, I told them, ‘Hey we need to set this up, because this is a real possibility, of all three of us playing together and actually having minutes. So I wanted to let them know, we can actually do this, and we set it up, and now we’re all excited for it.”
The trio will visit IU the weekend of Sept. 20.
“We’re best friends on and off the court, we’re brothers,” Moreno said. “That’s just a fact.”
Indiana Elite has helped create a bond between Moreno and current IU players as well. He mentioned Trey Galloway and Anthony Leal as two former members of the Adidas 3SSB program who has a connection with.
“Every time I see them, it’s like seeing another set of brothers,” Moreno said.
Indiana has put centers in the NBA Draft each of the last two years.
Moreno says the Indiana staff reminds him of that often.
“I’m built a lot like Kel’el Ware, but I play a lot like Tracye Jackson-Davis, except for athleticism, he’s a little more athletic than me,” Moreno said. “They just tell me about what Woody can do with big men, and that’s their main push to me every time we talk.”
Indiana should have significant minutes available at center when Moreno steps on a college campus next year.
“They have the two grad transfers (centers Oumar Ballo and Langdon Hatton), so they tell me if I go there I can start day one as a freshman,” he said.
Moreno says a common theme throughout his recruitment is that most of his main suitors also recruited his brother Michael Moreno, who he calls his “rock” in helping him navigate recruiting. Michael Moreno just finished a five-year, 1,600-point career at Eastern Kentucky.
Former IU coach Tom Crean was involved in Michael Moreno’s recruitment, which Malachi says gives his brother a good understanding of what Indiana is all about. And Malachi’s older brother also has an long-time friendship with Indiana Assistant Director of Recruiting Adam Howard.
More broadly, Moreno says he has five visits set up at the moment, and he want to visit all eight finalists before picking a college in mid-October.
What are going to be the deciding factors?
“Just to be able to grow as a player, a student and a person, and a place to be able to grow my faith, because I’ve got to be able to fall back on something,” Moreno said.
Height: 7-0
Position: Center
School / Hometown: Great Crossing H.S. / Georgetown, Ky.
AAU Team: Indiana Elite (Adidas)
Competition: Kentucky, Arkansas, Iowa, Louisville, Ohio State, Notre Dame, North Carolina (final eight)
On3 Industry Ranking: No. 25 (4-star)
IU OFFICIAL VISIT — September 20
For complete coverage of IU basketball recruiting, GO HERE.
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