Five-star center with UK basketball offer makes college commitment. What school did he pick?

Another elite prospect in the 2025 college basketball recruiting class has made his commitment.

Five-star center Chris Cenac Jr. — a 6-foot-10, 230-pound prospect originally from New Orleans — pledged to join Houston on Tuesday afternoon. Cenac picked the Cougars from a final shortlist of seven schools that also included Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Kentucky, LSU, and Tennessee.

Cenac’s commitment to the Cougars carries plenty of significance when it comes to Kentucky basketball’s continued recruiting efforts in the 2025 class.

But first, let’s look back at Mark Pope’s pursuit of Cenac.

UK offered Cenac a scholarship in June, after watching the stock-rising, versatile big man in action at the NBPA Top 100 Camp in Orlando, Florida, which is considered a top evaluation setting for prospects.

Kentucky had a strong recruiting presence at that event, with Pope, associate head coach Alvin Brooks III and assistant coaches Cody Fueger and Jason Hart all on hand.

Cenac, who was named the MVP of the NBPA Top 100 Camp, is valued as a college recruit for his ability to guard multiple positions on defense and score from a variety of spots on offense.

“I can just shoot the ball, handle the ball, defend the 1 through the 5, post a guy up,” Cenac said during the summer. “I can really do everything on the floor, rebound, all that. … (College coaches) like how I can switch off of pick-and-rolls, how I can shoot the 3. Just my versatility.”

This performance was a microcosm of Cenac’s big spring and summer. He collected 21 high-major scholarship offers in a span of less than two months earlier this year thanks to dominating the Puma grassroots circuit and the NBPA Top 100 Camp.

The next major moment in Cenac’s recruitment by UK came in late September, when he took an official visit to Lexington.

“It was a great visit,” Cenac told the Herald-Leader in October. “Coach Pope and his coaching staff, they’re all great guys… Had a great practice when I was in. … The NBA playing style, (Pope) preached on that a lot. That will get me ready for the next level. And (UK’s) development program.”

Shortly after that visit in early October, Cenac released a list of his top seven schools. That was the list Cenac was still working with when he committed to Houston on Tuesday.

Cenac, who is ranked as the No. 6 prospect in the 2025 class by the 247Sports Composite and as the top center in the class, is now the fourth player to commit to Houston from the high school senior class.

Three-star small forward Bryce Jackson, five-star point guard Kingston Flemings and five-star shooting guard Isiah Harwell all signed national letters of intent with Houston to play for head coach Kelvin Sampson during the early signing period, which ran from Nov. 13 to Nov. 20.

Houston is 3-1 this season and is ranked No. 6 in this week’s AP Poll. The Cougars will play No. 9 Alabama on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.

Kentucky’s 2025 recruiting class also includes three signees: Guards Acaden Lewis and Jasper Johnson and center Malachi Moreno.

After winning multiple state titles in Louisiana at New Orleans’ Isidore Newman School — which is the alma mater of NFL Super Bowl winners wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and legendary quarterbacks Eli and Peyton Manning — Cenac will play at Missouri’s Link Academy as a senior.

That’s the same school that Johnson, the UK basketball signee and former Woodford County High School star, played at as a high school junior. Johnson is now at Atlanta’s Overtime Elite for his senior season.

“Just being a better leader, that’s what I’m big on right now at Link,” Cenac said. “Being a better leader, (developing) better IQ, being able to do everything on the court and just improve, all-around, my game.”

What is next for Kentucky basketball with the 2025 recruiting class?

There are only five recruits left in the 2025 class who hold a UK scholarship offer, haven’t yet committed to a school and who are still, officially, considering the Wildcats.

Those players are five-star point guard Mikel Brown Jr., five-star combo guard Brayden Burries, four-star power forward Niko Bundalo, five-star power forward Nate Ament and five-star power forward Caleb Wilson.

Of this group, Wilson is almost universally viewed as the prospect most likely to become a Kentucky player. That’s especially true now that Cenac is off the board.

Wilson — who is ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the 2025 class and is viewed as a probable lottery pick in the 2026 NBA draft — took an official visit to Kentucky in September and has the Wildcats included among his top five schools. Wilson also has Central Florida, North Carolina, Ohio State and Tennessee in his top-five list.

Lewis, the four-star UK guard signee, and Wilson are friends and have frequently teased a potential college pairing together on social media.

Pope and the Kentucky coaching staff are expected to bring in at least one more 2025 recruit.

Seven players from this season’s Kentucky roster will be out of NCAA eligibility at the season’s end. The only current UK scholarship players who will still have eligibility after this season are guards Collin Chandler, Otega Oweh and Travis Perry, forward Trent Noah and center Brandon Garrison.

This means there’s plenty of room on Kentucky’s projected roster next season for Pope to bring in newcomers.

“There’s always going to be a little bit of an age component, because veteran guys are veteran guys, and we get experiences through experience, right? So there’s always going to be a need for some of that space in there,” Pope told the Herald-Leader earlier this month. “But getting elite-level freshmen who are going to be one-and-done guys that are going to come here and play one year and go to the NBA, that’s also an important component of what Kentucky basketball should be.”