‘Credits to Pope.’ What does Malachi Moreno think of the new-look Kentucky team?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UK basketball center Malachi Moreno is returning to the Wildcats for his sophomore year.
- Moreno went through the 2026 NBA draft process, but decided to return to Lexington.
- Moreno is expected to start for UK again next season, alongside several new players.
When Malachi Moreno’s freshman season with Kentucky basketball came to a close, the mood of that singular moment failed to match the standout debut college basketball campaign that had just ended.
Moreno — who averaged 7.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.5 blocks per game as a freshman starter this past season, earning SEC All-Freshman team honors in the process — struck a somber tone in St. Louis when speaking to reporters after UK’s second-round exit from the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Emotion cracked in Moreno’s voice as he lamented both his individual play and UK’s early departure from March Madness.
At that time, common thought was that the Central Kentucky native would be back at UK for his sophomore year. That was the eventual end result of Moreno’s foray into, and withdrawal from, the NBA draft process this offseason, but it wasn’t as straightforward of a decision to come back to Lexington as many had anticipated.
In a one-on-one interview with the Herald-Leader, Moreno reflected on his late May decision to spurn the professional ranks for another season with Mark Pope’s Kentucky program.
“I take great pride in it, because sometimes guys that have those whispers in the first round, they kind of take their chances, they stay in the draft,” Moreno said. “But for me, I’m a homebody, so once I knew the best opportunity was for me to go home, I took it. No hesitation. Called everybody, and said ‘I’m coming back.’”
Moreno’s comments came while he was at the Kentucky-Indiana High School All-Star Classic on Friday at Lexington Catholic High School. It was a familiar environment for Moreno, who played in the event last year after winning the 2025 Kentucky Mr. Basketball award while leading Georgetown’s Great Crossing High School to a Sweet 16 state title.
He cut an enthusiastic figure Friday night, helping with on-court ceremonies and reminiscing with friends. Fellow UK basketball returnee Reece Potter was also in the LexCath crowd.
When discussing his offseason so far, Moreno was excited to share the feedback he received from franchises during the NBA Combine in Chicago and from individual meetings and workouts. A lot of that feedback was centered around Moreno’s body.
“My body is my own, and I need to take care of it, and I’ve kind of got to look the part. A lot of them said, ‘You have the skill, but you need to start showing a little bit more and need to move a little bit better,’” said Moreno, who was listed at 7-foot, 250 pounds during the 2025-26 season. “So that kind of just gave me the drive to go back home so I can improve on what were my weaknesses.”
Moreno said that in anticipation of his first college season, he was focused on putting on weight to help handle the size and physicality of big-time college hoops. That didn’t always translate to putting on quality weight, though.
“Last year, I think I was more worried about just putting on weight in general. I think I was just so worried about putting on bad weight, because I just wanted to beat my weight goals,” Moreno said, just before diving into a bowl of snack pretzels. “But this year I’m more focused on how I gain the weight, and I’m trying to gain it in the best possible way I can, while also being in the best possible shape I can.”
Moreno was considered a potential first-round NBA draft selection when he made the choice May 24 to withdraw from a loaded draft class, considered one of the deepest in recent years. The 19-year-old previously announced in April that if he was to return to college hoops as a sophomore, it would be with the Cats.
Malachi Moreno talks about the new-look UK basketball team
The team that Moreno is returning to in Lexington looks vastly different from last season’s.
Kentucky is set to return only five players from its 2025-26 roster that went 22-14 overall and 12-9 against SEC opponents. Joining Moreno and Potter among the returnees are juniors Trent Noah and Kam Williams and redshirt freshman forward Braydon Hawthorne. Hawthorne and Potter both redshirted last season, while Noah played sparingly against top opponents and Williams missed a large chunk of SEC play with a broken left foot.
UK’s newcomers include six additions from the NCAA transfer portal: Guards Zoom Diallo, Jerone Morton and Alex Wilkins, forwards Justin McBride and Milan Momcilovic and experienced center Franck Kepnang. Pope’s program is also bringing in guards Mason Williams and Zyon Hawthorne from the high school ranks, as well as international player Ousmane N’Diaye, a forward from Senegal who played professionally in Italy this past season.
Moreno — who served as a host for several Kentucky recruits this offseason during their visits to Lexington — was eager to praise his new teammates.
“The group we put together is really special. The group that we have is going to be very, very dangerous. Everybody’s a bunch of creators,” Moreno said, using one of Pope’s favorite buzz words from this offseason. “We have positional size. We got guys that can do the dirty work. We got guys that can create shots for others. We got guys that can knock down some really much-needed shots. So I think just the team that we got, credits to Pope, credits to Pope.”
The headline addition is Momcilovic, who was ranked as one of the best transfers in all of college basketball this offseason. The 6-foot-8 Momcilovic was the best 3-point shooter in the sport during the 2025-26 season, converting 48.7% of his shots from deep and making a total of 136 3-pointers. Like Moreno, Momcilovic went through the NBA draft process but ultimately withdrew and committed to UK out of the portal June 1.
Moreno said he spoke with Momcilovic during the Combine in early May, but at that time neither player knew if they were staying in the draft or returning to college basketball.
Moreno said that a few days before Momcilovic committed to Kentucky, he was part of a Zoom call with Momcilovic and the player’s inner circle.
Fast-forward a few days, and Moreno was on the phone with his older brother Michael — a former local prep basketball star at Scott County who played five seasons at Eastern Kentucky — discussing golf plans when news broke that Momcilovic was joing UK.
Moreno compared the addition of Momcilovic to that of Koby Brea for Pope’s first UK team prior to the 2024-25 season. Brea also joined Kentucky from the transfer portal after scorching the nets with a 49.8% success rate from 3-point range during the previous season at Dayton.
During his lone season at UK, Brea developed into an all-around player while averaging a career-best 11.6 points per contest. Brea, who shot 43.5% from 3 during his lone season in Lexington, became Pope’s first NBA draft pick in 2025.
“I think guys like that really fit into the system that Pope has,” Moreno said. “I think it makes it a lot easier, for not just myself, but for everybody else on the court when you have a guy like that. They’re such a danger around the 3-point line, it causes defenses to just space out.”
Diallo, Momcilovic and Moreno are three penciled-in starters for Kentucky. The Cats’ new-look roster will get tested right from the start, with nonconference games lined up against Kansas, Indiana, Virginia, Louisville and North Carolina prior to the always-difficult 18-game SEC season.
But before all of that comes summer practice, which starts later this month and will provide an important setting for a team filled with new pieces to jell ahead of Pope’s critical third season as head coach.
Individually, it will also be an important year for Moreno. He returns the most production of any UK player from last season, and he’ll be looked to as a leader on and off the floor as the Cats chase their first Final Four trip since 2015. Moreno will also be closely watched by NBA scouts ahead of the 2027 draft.
Amidst all of this, Moreno moved back into his UK residence Friday. Among all the lessons he’s learned this offseason are some packing cues from his freshman year that Moreno applied to this year’s move-in process.
“I knew what to bring this year, as opposed to last year,” Moreno said. “I brought too much stuff, so when I moved out, I had too much stuff to bring home. But no, this year it was simple and smooth. I’m all set.”
