Kentucky's freshman are flying under the radar ahead of the 2025-26 season

It is getting to the point of the college basketball offseason where the media starts to do a lot of talking, and some of the talking that has been going on over the last few weeks has to do with the elite freshman. College basketball has some really talented freshmen this season, but Kentucky's are not being discussed at all.

If you asked most national media members to give their top fifteen freshmen for the upcoming season, not one person would list one of the Wildcats' freshmen.

This is surprising, knowing Kentucky's 2025 class has two five stars, one of which is a McDonald's All-American. Both Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno are going to have an impact for the Wildcats this season.

The other freshman on this team is Braydon Hawthorne, but he is looked at as more of a project piece for this team. The Croatian big man Andrija Jelavic is also technically a freshman, but his circumstances are a little different, knowing he is 21.

Johnson is going to come off the bench for this basketball team and be a microwave scorer. He is a player who does not lack any confidence as a shooter, and Coach Pope has been imploring him to keep shooting the ball. Johnson's jump shot is clearly a big part of the game plan for this team this season.

Jasper Johnson, a Lexington native and one of the top basketball players in the 2025 high school class, announces his commitment to the University of Kentucky during a ceremony at the Woodford County High School in Versailles, Ky. on Sep. 5, 2024. | Sam Upshaw Jr./Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

Moreno is perhaps even more underrated than Johnson, as literally no one is talking about him, even though he was a McDonald's All-American. The seven-foot freshman is one of the most skilled big men in this class, and he has some elite footwork around the rim.

While Jayden Quaintance is rehabbing from the ACL surgery, Moreno is going to get a lot of playing time for this basketball team, and the expectation is for him to shine. There is a world where Moreno takes over for Brandon Garrison as the backup center to Quaintance if he plays well early in the season.

Johnson is going to be a player similar to what fans saw with Rob Dillingham, as he is a high-level shooter and scorer. If Big Blue Nation can get 75% of Dillingham from Johnson this season, it would be a massive win.

In the grand scheme of things, Kentucky's freshmen are not being talked about nearly enough ahead of the 2025-26 season, but they are talented and will have an important role on an elite basketball team.