One of Mark Pope’s major offseason assignments goes beyond the basketball court
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pope prioritizes keeping Chandler and Moreno for 2026-27 continuity.
- Chandler and Moreno showed steadiness and clear leadership potential.
- Roster continuity and fair NIL offers are key factors in Pope's offseason plan.
Whatever happens this offseason, change is coming to Kentucky basketball.
In the wake of a 2025-26 season that fell well short of expectations, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But as some things change, Mark Pope will need some other things to stay the same.
And one of the UK coach’s biggest offseason priorities should be clear to anyone who followed the Cats on their most recent journey: Pope needs Collin Chandler and Malachi Moreno back in blue for the 2026-27 campaign.
With senior guards Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen — the top two scorers on this past season’s team — gone for sure and the status of several other Cats up in the air, Pope is entering an uncertain offseason with plenty of angst coming from a vocal segment of the fan base.
The No. 1 thing he can do to alleviate that is win more basketball games, but that can’t possibly be achieved until November. Bringing in some big-name players this spring — whether that be top-ranked recruit Tyran Stokes or the best the transfer portal has to offer — would help, too.
But one point the John Calipari era drove home was that while UK basketball fans will go along with just about anything (within reason) as long as the team is winning big, roster continuity is important, too. The process of getting to know the players in the jerseys, watching them grow over time and seeing that growth rewarded with rings and banners is part of the Kentucky tradition.
Calipari’s one-and-done approach turned that tradition on its head. And a college basketball landscape dominated by NIL and the portal makes continuity an exceedingly difficult concept.
But Pope is in a spot to do it, and it starts with Chandler and Moreno.
Those two players — both underclassmen — cemented themselves as UK starters fairly early in the season. Chandler started 31 games, Moreno 30. Oweh, Aberdeen and Brandon Garrison were the only other Cats who played in all 36 this season.
And while both Chandler and Moreno have ample room to grow, they were solid contributors.
Chandler was third on the team in scoring (9.7 points per game) and shot a team-best 41.0% from 3-point range despite shooting 8 for 33 in March.
Moreno averaged 7.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocked shots per game — leading the team in the latter two categories — and showed flashes of the necessary offensive skill to thrive as the facilitating 5 man in Pope’s offense.
Both have a close connection with Pope, but Kentucky can’t take them for granted either. As other major programs learned last season, failing to make fair and/or competitive NIL offers can lead even loyal players to look at the transfer portal, and Pope knows he needs to lock in Chandler and Moreno as he builds the next UK basketball roster.
And while the Kentucky coach will still have his sights set on other major players — perhaps two or three that could be expected to outperform Chandler and Moreno — part of bringing these two Cats back would go a long way toward something important for next season.
Pope needs some leaders. And Chandler and Moreno appear to be perfect fits.
Growing as UK basketball players
Leadership has been an interesting thing over Pope’s first two seasons at UK.
Jaxson Robinson was the only player on Pope’s first Kentucky team who had played for him previously. Oweh was the top returning player from Year 1 to Year 2 of the Pope era.
Both were viewed as the best players on the team coming into each season, yet both acknowledged that they weren’t leaders in the traditional sense.
The two guys who turned out to be the starting point guards on those teams — Lamont Butler and Aberdeen — were also on the quieter side. They emerged as more vocal leaders as the season progressed, but it wasn’t either player’s natural state.
Chandler and Moreno, according to UK’s players and coaches, could thrive in those roles.
Toward the end of the season, Pope talked about the “steadiness” both players showed, even as underclassmen working to improve their own growing games and align that individual growth with the needs of the team.
“It’s one of the traditional kinds of areas of leadership that you’d look for in anybody, this ability to be steady,” he said. “Malachi has this really steady personality, where he just stays super even-keeled. Collin has a steadiness about him that is, like, every single rep, whether it’s May 15 or April 1, April 6 — two very different environments — he’s gonna go 100% full out.
“He’s just got the ability to kind of bring it every single day. He’s also shown this ability to be like clutch, clutch, clutch, and it’s helped him win street cred with his team, where guys are leaning on him just as a performance leadership ability.”
Chandler has now spent two seasons with Pope, and he pointed out in the locker room after UK’s season-ending loss to Iowa State that he’s known the head coach since he was 15 years old. They’re on the same wavelength, and Chandler’s two-year teammates, specifically Oweh, have talked about his natural leadership instincts.
He didn’t get to show that as much as a freshman, when he was coming off a two-year church mission and reacclimating himself to basketball amid a roster filled with veterans.
“I think leadership comes from people who have experience,” Chandler told the Herald-Leader. “I mean, that’s a big thing for leadership, and so coming in as a freshman and playing with a lot of fifth-year seniors, I didn’t have much experience in that way. I could contribute to energy and things like that. But this year, it came from having experience as a player, but also experiences here at Kentucky and what that is, and the system we’re wanting to play and the way we’re wanting to play. That’s given me an opportunity to grow as a leader in that way.”
Moreno found this out the hard way.
In the summer, some of UK’s older players — when asked who had been the most vocal in early practices — mentioned Moreno, a surprise given his status as a freshman. The coaches backed that up.
“He’s not afraid, man,” UK assistant Mikhail McLean told the Herald-Leader recently. “He’s not afraid to tell Otega, like, ‘Otega, you BS’ing.’ Or, ‘Collin, you’re not doing this.’ Or, ‘DA, you need to be better at this.’ And in order to be a leader, I think you have to be able to give, but you have to be able to receive as well. And just as much as he gives, he receives it and he takes it. Because guys are on him, too, when he’s playing not as physical as he needs to, or if he’s not finishing around the rim. So I think that’s impressive.”
Asked if the older players actually listened, McLean grinned.
“Early on, they did not. And it pissed him off,” he said. “But they have respect for him now. They respect him a lot more now, because they’ve seen him perform, and seen him do things, and seen how much he cares. And he does it in practice, too. There are guys that only want to hold guys accountable in the game. You got to do it in practice, too. And he’s been pretty consistent.”
Kentucky’s future basketball leaders
Two talented players with natural leadership skills and a deep familiarity with Kentucky’s program? That could be a winning combination for Pope, even if he does bring in a lottery pick talent like Stokes or a couple of big-name outsiders from the transfer portal, as expected.
“Malachi is going to continue to grow in terms of his IQ with the game,” he said. “I think, inherently, he’s a really, really smart player. As he learns more, that’s going to be really focused, where he’s going to bring that to his team, and be able to communicate with guys in the right spots, right places, right reads. I think that’ll be a part of his growth as a leader.
“Collin is going to have a really unique ability, as he goes, to bond with every single unique individual on the team and kind of meet them where they are. And I think those two guys are really exciting leaders as we move forward, for sure.”
A big part of leading is convincing others that you’re worth following, and Chandler and Moreno seem to have already checked that box. Another aspect is owning your own shortcomings, and the type of humility both players showed in the aftermath of Kentucky’s season ending loss to Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament was telling.
Chandler and Moreno both have NBA aspirations, and Moreno even entered the conversation as a potential first-round pick as this season neared its conclusion. But both struggled down the stretch, and neither player needed to be reminded of it after the season came to an end.
Moreno kept it short when asked what he needed to work on in the upcoming offseason.
“Everything,” he said. “My play kind of regressed as the postseason came about. So I can never let that happen again. And I just got to come back better, stronger, and as the best version of myself. It just shows me that I got a lot of work to do in this offseason. So that’s really all I can say. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and I’m ready to do it.”
Chandler, who talked about his own need for improvement as the postseason wore on, had similar thoughts.
“I’m grateful for the experience I had and the people I’ve met and the relationships I’ve built,” he said. “But I think I’m hungry to come back. To be back in March Madness. To win more, I think is the takeaway for me. Right now, obviously, the loss stings, and so I’m motivated to get back to a game like this.”
