It’s been beaten into the ground at this point, but Kentucky bringing back Malachi Moreno for a sophomore season was a massive win for Mark Pope going into year three as head coach of the Wildcats.
It wasn’t always a sure thing, though. Moreno has even publicly admitted he struggled with his decision to turn down the NBA for another run in college. But he and his family came to the decision they believe is the right one: to develop in Lexington for one more season and solidify first-round draft status. That and making a deep postseason run are his main goals for the 2026-27 campaign.
If that decision was tough for Moreno, imagine how Pope must’ve felt having to sweat it out for nearly two full months. He had a good feeling that he wouldn’t lose Moreno to another college, which Moreno made known from the moment he went to test the draft waters, but the NBA?
“You never know for sure. Malachi’s heart is in Kentucky,” Pope told KSR’s Matt Jones on Wednesday. “He loves this place and he’s got a lot of faith in our staff. He’s got a lot of passion about what we’re doing. But the NBA pull is real. It is a real thing…
“Anything can happen in the portal, as we’ve seen. Day after day after day, it’s such a dynamic place, but I know Malachi’s heart, I know what he cares about. Everybody in Kentucky knows how much he cares about this place. So he was a huge point of emphasis.”
The Big Blue Nation doesn’t want to think about what would have happened had Moreno gone pro. Since the pre-draft process took so long, other center options had all but dried up by the time he officially announced his return to UK. There weren’t many — if any at all — starting-caliber bigs on the big board, not ones that could produce right away in the SEC, at least. Franck Kepnang and Reece Potter are solid depth pieces for Pope at the center spot, but not guys he’d want playing 25-plus minutes per game.
It was Moreno or bust. Pope and Co. came out on the right side of that battle.
“We came (into the offseason) with two major priorities,” Pope said. “One, Malachi Moreno is a massively important piece of what we’re doing.”
Moreno appeared to wear down as his unexpectedly productive (and overall successful) freshman season came to an end. Even still, he was named to the All-SEC Freshman Team. He’s already popping up on 2027 NBA mock draft boards as a first-round pick. The seven-footer is becoming a trendy choice as a breakout player in the SEC next season. If he lives up to the hype and takes another leap in his game, Kentucky has a chance to be dangerous.
But what about the second offseason priority for Pope? That would be bringing in creators — the new BBN buzzword for the last couple of months. After last season’s backcourt issues, complicated by an injury to the starting point guard, Pope made sure there wouldn’t be a repeat of that in 2026-27. So he went out and landed guys who know nothing but how to create offense.
Enter Zoom Diallo and Alex Wilkins, who both posted assist rates of 30-plus percent at their previous stops. That’s the day-one starting backcourt. Jerone Morton was added as another potential creator piece off the bench. It’s still early into the summer, but freshman Mason Williams is generating similar buzz, too.
“This creator side of the ball was such a huge point of emphasis,” Pope added. “And so we went really hard after those two spaces, and then built in the rest of the roster.”