{"id":632711,"date":"2026-03-01T17:35:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/632711\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T17:35:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:35:21","slug":"malachi-moreno-was-bullying-vanderbilts-frontcourt-around-the-rim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/632711\/","title":{"rendered":"Malachi Moreno was bullying Vanderbilt’s frontcourt around the rim"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the very first possession of Saturday\u2019s game, Malachi Moreno<\/a> battled for position on the block, grabbed Collin Chandler<\/a>\u2018s missed three-pointer (a rarity for the sophomore guard, who finished 6-8 from deep) over two Vanderbilt defenders, and put in an easy left-handed hook shot to give Kentucky an early 2-0 lead. <\/p>\n

It looked like a routine offensive rebound for the seven-foot freshman, but it was a tone-setting play right off the bat. The last time these two teams met in Nashville over a month ago, Moreno struggled with the Commodores\u2019 physicality. That was anything but the case in Kentucky\u2019s 91-77 revenge win in Lexington.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Malachi Moreno is really special,\u201d Head coach Mark Pope<\/a> told Tom Leach on postgame radio. \u201cHe\u2019s Kentucky born and raised, and every time there\u2019s been a challenge as a young freshman big \u2014 which is really hard to do \u2014 every time there\u2019s been a challenge where he hasn\u2019t felt good about his performance, and he\u2019s had a chance to go respond, he\u2019s responded. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll week long he was so physical in practice, he was so physical in every single rep, his intensity level picked up. And then we got to see it happen today, and that\u2019s how he responds when things don\u2019t go right like they didn\u2019t down in Nashville.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first matchup against Vanderbilt on Jan. 27, Moreno finished with four points (1-2 FG) and eight rebounds in 26 minutes, dealing with foul trouble along the way. Kentucky got rocked in a 25-point loss. During the rematch, he posted 11 points (4-5 FG), six rebounds, and five assists, picking up just one foul in his 27 minutes. It marked the seventh game this season he\u2019s led UK in assists.<\/p>\n

KSR Top 10Top 10Top 101UK 91, Vandy 77<\/p>\n

Cats ROLL in revenge game<\/p>\n

Trending<\/a>2<\/a>33-headed GOAT<\/p>\n

UK’s backcourt scores 61!<\/p>\n

New<\/a>4We needed that<\/p>\n

Breathe, BBN!<\/p>\n

New<\/a>5Rapid Reaction<\/p>\n

Take that, Vandy!<\/p>\n

<\/a>View All<\/a>Get the Daily On3 Newsletter in your inbox every morning<\/p>\n

By clicking “Subscribe to Newsletter”, I agree to On3’s Privacy Notice<\/a>, Terms<\/a>, and use of my personal information described therein.<\/p>\n

But it was how Moreno scored his 11 points that showcased the differences from game one to game two against Vandy. It started with the offensive rebound putback less than 30 seconds into the contest. His second bucket came with 5:51 to go in the first half and produced a similar result. He caught a pass just outside of the paint, took a few hard dribbles, put his shoulder into the defender, and went up for a short right-handed hook shot. He was fouled while driving his way to the rim on the next offensive possession. <\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate the trust that my teammates and my coaches give me,\u201d Moreno said. \u201cI just gotta make a play with the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

That bully-ball style of play carried over into the second half. Before the first media timeout, Moreno again sealed his defender not far from the rim, caught an easy pass, then lowered his shoulder into his defender for two more free throws. A few minutes later, he once again scored on a physical post-up play. He repeated a similar bucket one more time with about five minutes to go. <\/p>\n

Nothing about Moreno\u2019s performance came easy, but he sure made it look that way in a game that felt personal to him. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the very first possession of Saturday\u2019s game, Malachi Moreno battled for position on the block, grabbed Collin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,7388],"class_list":{"0":"post-632711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-malachi-moreno-25-great-crossing"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116155129895709185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}