Kentucky signee Malachi Moreno has impressed Dennis Johnson and Cameron Mills with his all-around play. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Great Crossing center Malachi Moreno is someone that Dennis Johnson, father of UK signee Jasper Johnson, watched play a lot in high school and he also got to see him when the two UK signees played recently at the Nike Hoop Summit.
“Malachi had a great week. I loved that he didn’t go outside of his game. He didn’t try to score 20 points, block every shot. He would come in the scrimmage and block a couple of shots, get two or three rebounds,” Dennis Johnson said. “I think we (Kentucky) will be able to run next season and will be able to use him as a point center if needed.”
Former Wildcat Cameron Mills, UK coach Mark Pope’s teammate on the 1996 national championship team, watched Moreno lead Great Crossing to the state high school championship.
“I know he improved all of his game from last year to this season but the one thing he intentionally worked on was his outside shooting and you could tell that,” Mills said. “The most impressive thing I saw during the tournament was in the first game in the first quarter when he had a wide open 3-pointer. It wasn’t that he made it, which was wonderful, but he didn’t second guess himself before he shot it.
“That the evidence that he put in the work and knew if he was open, he was shooting. That’s one way he can fit in at Kentucky next year. But for a big guy he also has great footwork, great hands, plays smart.”
Mills knows there will be “growing pains” as freshmen for both Moreno and Johnson.
“But I think both of them are going to fit in very well and I think they both have a chance to be special players,” Mills said.
5 Responses
I think Johnson is a 2 and done. I think Moreno is a 3 and done. Moreno reminds me of Willie Cauley Stein. There games mirror each other. The only difference is Moreno is more polished on offense then Cauley Stein was and Cauley Stein was a little better on defense. You will see Moreno get better every year the way Stein did.
Stein did not like physical play at Kentucky. That is where Moreno can bulk up and mix it up with the SEC bigs. He will need 3 years to complete that development and become a number 1 scoring option, but in doing so, he will make himself a top 10 pick in the NBA.
Moreno will develop faster if given 10-15 minutes or 15-20 per game in the early season. If he rides the bench and only plus 3 to 5 minutes against the weaker opponents, he will miss the opportunity to adjust to college ball and contribute during the SEC league play & beyond during his FR year.
If he is a hard worker and dedicated player, his long term (2, 3 years or maybe more) value to UK needs rewarded with those key minutes in the early season. The 1&g (gone) transfers are almost a dime a dozen, with very few truly interested in UK. One stop dreamers are not going to lead UK to the FF and #9 because they are not driven by wearing UK on their jersey.
The first crop of transfers were all in to play Pope Ball and share the rock EVERY trip down the floor. After 5 to 7 games, the self interest began to take over and after 10 to 12 games the losses reflected very poor A:TO ratio, especially from those who took a lot of shots just to score and not shots in the best interest of UK.
If the transfers had stayed with the incredible A:TO ratio earned in the early season when fully endorsing Pope Ball, listening to Pope & his assistants, then UK goes to the FF and has a real shot at the Title – and if the 3 FR had genuine experience by playing significant minutes those early season games, then #9 would have been highly likely.
The bench is how ball hogs are reigned in. It only takes a few trips down the floor without sharing the ball to begin to fracture the team chemistry and then others will not be as likely to share the rock. A quick trip to the bench could solve the problem instead of letting ANY player decide he is going to be the hero (in his own mind), win or lose.
I agree if he’s going to play he needs to learn how to play against weaker competition first instead of cutting his teeth during sec games. You can’t give a honest Evaluation on a player without them playing the whole season. Playing in games makes you better than just practicing. No practice will simulate game action. This year practice is going to be like games with how deep we are. Pope should get a good idea of who’s going to play and who isn’t going to play by the time the season gets here. We are the deepest team in college basketball. Nobody is better than us 1-13. When Potter is your 13th guy you have an amazing team. We have a running back that tore his acl his senior year of high school. He was redshirted of course his freshman year. Last year was his redshirt freshman year and everyone has said he lost a step in his speed. It took him 14 months to be able to cut and spin at 100% speed. I’m not sold on JQ being ready by September hell he might not be ready at all this year. March madness will be one year since the surgery which is the average time to heal. If he was in the NBA he wouldn’t even play this year. They always take a year off in the NBA. So why does everyone think he will heal in 6-7 months? Yes he’s young but hes very big. Its harder the bigger you are to come back from ACL. Just ask Greg Oden. He was supposed to be the best recruit in 20 years. Tore his acl and he was never the same. JQ will also gain some weight not being able to move his leg and sitting down more than standing to let his leg heal. He might be over weight when he comes back and he will have to get in shape. I just don’t know about JQ. The way he told Pope no when he got here and now all of a sudden he’s all in!? He could be using Kentucky for a paycheck and a nice practice facility and trainers. What if he decides after he runs on it to wait alot longer? I know his #1 priority is the NBA. I know when he went into the portal and said he wanted 2.5 million I laughed at him. He just tore his acl and he’s demanding2.5 million dollars and you don’t even know if he will be ready to play this year. I’m just saying the truth. We shall see but it could be a Sharpe case. Using Kentucky to practice and get his knee back for the NBA draft. If this happens Pope dropped the ball majorly.
Players have used UK as a practice team while milking injuries numerous times when the previous person paid to be the HC was here. It’s a scam which some players have mastered. The jury is still out on this one. You sure made some valid points!