Malachi Moreno had a bizarre way to inform Kentucky head coach Mark Pope that he was withdrawing from the NBA Draft to play one more season in Lexington. Moreno was at an Inter Miami CF game, the pictures of which did the rounds on social media.
During his interview with Maggie Davis on “BBN Tonight,” Moreno recalls being at Nu Stadium in Miami, watching Lionel Messi & Co. play the Philadelphia Union. It was very loud when Moreno dialed up Pope.
“It was a little hard to FaceTime just because it was so loud in the Inter Miami CF stadium, because there were so many people, music playing all game long,” Moreno said. “So, all I did was, I just called him, and I had my phone in one hand, and I was plugging my ear on the other end so I could hear him. I just told him, I said, ‘I’m coming back, and I’m ready to work.’ He was super excited. He was just like, ‘I’m ready to work too, and we’re going to be dangerous, and we’re going to change a lot.’”
As it turned out, Moreno saw Messi’s team register a 6-4 win.
Behind the decision, Moreno revealed the advice he received during his experience at the Combine about how freshman players take the biggest leaps in their sophomore season. This is why Moreno considers his return an opportunity to further improve his draft stock.
“Showing just a little bit of everything,” Moreno said. “Just really stretching out my game, becoming very versatile. Kind of just being a leader and not being that quiet freshman anymore. Now, I’ve got to be a big, loud sophomore.
“That’s something the coaches would always say last year. ‘When you come back, you’re not a freshman anymore, you’re a sophomore. You’re a big sophomore; you’ve got to act like it.’”
Malachi Moreno’s Kentucky Return Celebrated At Nu Stadium Itself
Surprisingly, there was a member of BBN (nickname for the passionate fanbase of Kentucky Wildcats men’s and women’s basketball programs) present at Nu Stadium, who caught up with the Wildcats star and celebrated his return. This made all the more sense for Moreno to return to Lexington.
“Having them show the support, it just shows there’s no place I’d rather be at, and there’s no place better,” Moreno said. “This is the best fanbase in the country. Once I made it official, and once I let it all out there, it was love like that. I was at an Inter Miami soccer game watching Lionel Messi, and I announced, and then I literally had a Kentucky fan come from the stands, and he found me. I was like, ‘What are you doing in Miami?’ And that just shows that the Big Blue runs deep and we’re everywhere.”
Summer workouts in Lexington start on June 15, where Moreno will join the rest of the Wildcats. He is already building a sense of brotherhood with new and old players. He knows Zoom Diallo and Milan Momcilovic from basketball camps in high school.
As such, Moreno is expected to be the leader of the group that is hoping to make a deep run in March Madness in the upcoming season.
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