Georgetown (Ky.) Great Crossing center Malachi Moreno is ranked No. 25 nationally in the 2025 class. He recently took an unofficial visit to Ohio State and recounts that experience.
ROCK HILL, S.C. – All spring and summer, Malachi Moreno has been one of the top players on one of the top travel basketball teams on the 17-U circuit. Moreno and his Indiana Elite team are one win away from capturing the adidas 3SSB Palmetto Road Championship as they will face the Utah Prospects in the title game on Sunday.
The 7-foot, 230-pound Moreno is ranked as the nation’s No. 25 prospect overall and No. 3 center, according to 247Sports.com. He has a wide array of college coaches watching his games here all week. His final top eight includes, in alphabetical order, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisville, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Ohio State.
Indiana Elite, which also includes a pair of highly rated Indiana prospects in Braylon Mullins and Trent Sisley, posted a perfect 13-0 record during the three legs of the adidas 3SSB season. In 13 games, Moreno averaged 13.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.2 blocks per game. He hit 65 percent of his shots from the floor
The team dropped its two “showcase games” to start the Palmetto Road event, but has reeled off four straight wins in bracket play to get to the championship. In those six games, Moreno has averaged 11.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.7 blocked shots. He has hit 62 percent of his shots from the floor and 65 percent of his free throws. He had 20 points and nine rebounds in a tournament win over Team Lilliard and just had 21 points and 16 rebounds in today’s semifinal win over Compton Magic.
Moreno is the top prospect in Kentucky for 2025. As a junior, he led Great Crossing to a sparkling 36-2 record and a berth in the Sweet 16 state semifinals. His team was ranked just outside the national top 25. He was a MaxPreps honorable mention All-American as he averaged 16.0 points, 13.3 rebounds, 3.7 blocks and 2.2 assists per game.
Moreno told reporters he has a busy schedule of official visits ahead of him. He is planning to see Ohio State Sept. 7, North Carolina Sept. 14, Indiana Sept. 20, Arkansas Oct. 5 and Kentucky Oct. 12. He made an unofficial visit to Ohio State in June on a day when former players were on hand to work out with the current team.
Moreno: “I just want to be more dependable with the ball in my hands and just be able to make the right reads and the right plays.”
Moreno: “Even though Cal (John Calipari) got a new job, he has been at all of my games and made sure he’s had one of his assistants there to watch me play. That means a lot to me.
“He wants me to play for him and he wants to turn me into an NBA player. He talked about the success he has had with big men. He wants to provide the best possible outcome for me.”
Moreno: “Sean May is recruiting me and he was a big guy at UNC. He is my main recruiter. He talked about how much he benefitted from playing at UNC and how much Hubert (Davis) liked watching me play and they want to get me down on campus.”
Moreno: “Coach Pope just says there is no better place to be. He’s a big man, so he knows how to coach big people like me. We have a similar play style. He wants to put me in the league. But he also wants to make sure I follow through with my faith.
“He loves passing big men and that’s one of my strengths, just being able to facilitate the floor and make the right play for my teammates.”
Moreno: “Things are good. Myself, Trent (Sisley) and Braylon (Mullins) will all be taking our official visit there together. We are part of their dream 2025 class. We will see what happens. They’ve been recruiting me since I was a freshman in high school and it has only grown from there.”
Moreno: “Yeah, we have talked about it. When we are with each other, we play basketball together so much that we don’t talk about basketball much. We talk about what happens outside of basketball. We have definitely given it some thought whether we would play together in college.”
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