Malachi Moreno called Mark Pope from a Lionel Messi match to share his NBA Draft Decision

It’s been 10 days since Malachi Moreno announced he was withdrawing from the NBA Draft to return to Kentucky for his sophomore season. After the news broke, a picture of Moreno at an Inter Miami CF game made the rounds on social media. Turns out that’s not only where Moreno decided to go live with the announcement, but it’s also where he shared the good news with his coach, Mark Pope.

In an interview with Maggie Davis on “BBN Tonight,” Moreno said he called Pope from Nu Stadium in Miami, where he was watching Lionel Messi and Inter Miami take on Philadelphia Union. It was so loud that he had to plug one ear to hear Pope’s reaction.

“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. 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.'”

It didn’t take long for the news to spread — even in Miami. Moreno grew up a Kentucky fan, so he’s used to Blue getting in, but even he was surprised when a member of BBN found him at Nu Stadium to celebrate his return.

“Having them show the support, it just shows there’s no place I’d rather be at, and there’s no place better. 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.”

Inter Miami won that match, 6-4, by the way. Do we need to adopt Messi as our good luck charm?

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“Now, I’ve got to be a big, loud sophomore”

Testing the NBA Draft waters was always part of Moreno’s plan; however, as the process went on, interest from teams became very real, to the point he had a very real decision to make. He said the most valuable feedback he got at the combine and during workouts was that players take their biggest leaps from their freshman to sophomore year of college. He’s banking on that to improve his stock for next year’s draft — while leading Kentucky back to greatness.

“Showing just a little bit of everything,” Moreno said of his goals for next season. “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.'”

Kentucky’s summer workouts begin on June 15, so soon, Moreno will be joined by his teammates, old and new. He said the 2026-27 group chat is already rolling. He’s familiar with some of the new guys, like Zoom Diallo, from basketball camps in high school, and he hosted others on their portal visits to Kentucky. He played against Milan Momcilovic during the NCAA Tournament in March; at a youth camp at Great Crossing High School on Tuesday, Moreno said the addition of the Iowa State sharpshooter makes next year’s team “dangerous.” From top to bottom, he is a fan of the group Pope has put together.

“I was grateful because when Coach was putting together our roster, that was needed. We’ve got positional size everywhere, we’ve got guys who can do the dirty work, we’ve got guys who can create for others. We’ve got guys who can do a lot of things, and I think that’s when you really thrive.”

We’ll hear more from Moreno and the team once they arrive on campus. A topic I’m sure that will come up is Malachi’s relationship with his older brother Michael, which we’ve documented plenty on this site. Michael continued to be Malachi’s rock throughout the draft process, helping Malachi make what he says is the happiest decision of his life.

“Definitely, just because it’s another year with family. It’s another year with friends. He was able to go through all five years of college, and he said those were some of the best years of your life. He met his wife in college. These are years that you don’t get back.

“He tells me always to enjoy the present. Just be happy where I’m at. That was one of the things he always told me, just to make sure I’m always happy with the decision I made, and I told him when I was coming back, I said, this is the happiest decision I’m ever going to make.”