Thank you, Malachi Moreno, for sparing BBN the anxiety this week

Malachi Moreno is coming back. Mark Pope’s “No. 1 priority” for next year’s roster announced on Sunday evening that he will return for a sophomore campaign in Lexington, putting off his NBA dreams for another year. Moreno’s comeback is critical to Kentucky’s upcoming season, and his importance cannot be overstated. The Wildcats are thrilled to have him back.

Nobody blamed Moreno for testing the NBA Draft waters over the last month. Pope and many Kentucky fans even encouraged it. When Moreno first entered the draft process, there was very little concern about whether he’d eventually return to Lexington.

Then the days started disappearing from the calendar, as Moreno received positive feedback from workouts with NBA teams. Kentucky fans monitored his every move and every NBA mock draft, wondering if he was gaining momentum behind the scenes. By Memorial Day weekend, the confidence level around his return wasn’t nearly as comfortable as it had been a month earlier.

Fortunately for the collective blood pressure of the Big Blue Nation, Moreno ended the suspense on Sunday instead of dragging Kentucky fans through three more days of refreshing Twitter, tracking the mocks, and overanalyzing cryptic social media activity, like that eye emoji tweet last week.

👀👀

— Malachi Moreno (@malachimoreno24) May 19, 2026

Sunday’s surprise came three days before the deadline to return to school. The Big Blue Nation appreciates Moreno’s timeliness on this matter because he saved fans from an anxious countdown to 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday.

Kentucky fans have lived through these NBA Draft waiting games before.

In 2017, Hamidou Diallo‘s return to Kentucky came minutes after the withdrawal deadline. Diallo told KSR that the NCAA was lenient with his tardiness because he missed the window by only a couple of minutes. Kentucky fans had been refreshing Twitter all day and night.

Two years ago, it was Jaxson Robinson keeping BBN up late at night. Robinson hadn’t yet committed to Kentucky, but the speculation was that he’d follow Mark Pope to Kentucky if he didn’t stay in the draft as a fringe first-rounder from BYU. The midnight deadline passed with no official word from Robinson, but fans later learned he had withdrawn at the last minute before pledging his commitment to the Wildcats for the 2024-25 season.

Last year, Otega Oweh was Kentucky’s player to watch during the draft process. Oweh didn’t push his announcement until midnight, but he still kept fans on pins and needles until the last day, declaring his return late in the afternoon on the withdrawal deadline.

Unlike those guys, Moreno didn’t wait around once he made up his mind. For that, a thank you from Kentucky fans everywhere, especially the ones refreshing social media and the bloggers trying to manufacture updates on a holiday weekend. He made this week a little less stressful around Big Blue Nation.

More importantly, he made the Wildcats a lot better going into next season.