Rupp Homecoming: John Pelphrey Comes Home
By Jamie H. Vaught
KySportsStyle.com Magazine
Some notes and observations...
--It was nice to see former Wildcat hoops standout John Pelphrey on the hardwood floor Wednesday night. He watched his Kentucky team warm up during a pregame practice at Rupp Arena before an exhibition game against Central Florida. Just over two weeks earlier, Pelphrey had been named the director of player development on coach Mark Pope's staff.
The 58-year-old Paintsville native also chatted with old friend and broadcaster Jimmy Dykes, who was working for the SEC Network. Their relationship goes back to the late 1980s, when Dykes, then an assistant under UK coach Eddie Sutton, was coaching Pelphrey. They were on the same team for two years (1987–89), which included Pelphrey's redshirt season.
Dykes was pleased to learn that Pelphrey had landed the Kentucky job. On X (formerly Twitter), Dykes wrote, "One of my all time favorite guys I ever had the privilege to coach. Congrats Coach Pelphrey!"
Dykes once predicted that Pelphrey's style of play would make him a great coach.
"He wasn't great at anything, but he made himself a great player because of desire, effort and passion," Dykes told HawgSports.com in 2007 when Pelphrey was chosen as the head coach at Arkansas. "He was just an excellent defender. He's the kind of guy you want to be your coach."
Pelphrey, who recently completed a seven-year stint as the head coach at Tennessee Tech, became famous alongside his senior teammates as "The Unforgettables." The nickname was given by then-Kentucky coach Rick Pitino to honor their leadership and commitment during UK's rebuilding period.
Today, Pelphrey is a member of the UK Athletics Hall of Fame, and his No. 34 jersey hangs retired in the rafters at Rupp Arena.
--On playing against 7-foot center Malachi Moreno of Kentucky, UCF coach Johnny Dawkins, who once starred at Duke, said, “He is a nightmare for opposing coaches because he’s not one-dimensional. He’s so versatile at what he does.”
While scoring 16 points against UCF, Moreno also grabbed 14 rebounds and dished out eight assists in 37 minutes of action. All three stats would have been career highs had this been an official game. (His official career bests are 32 minutes, 11 rebounds, and six assists.)
Moreno, a preseason All-SEC selection, credited staying in shape during the offseason as a major factor.
“This offseason was just a really key factor in my conditioning and my physicality," he said. "I felt like last year I was getting tired in short spurts and kind of getting thrown around. So all of camp, all of spring, all of summer was just conditioning, conditioning, conditioning, and then obviously working on my physicality and just becoming the big man that I need to be.”
--Reflecting on UK's mostly sluggish performance during the team's 90-76 overtime win over UCF, 6-foot-9 forward Milan Momcilovic commented, “I think we have a lot of room to grow. Obviously, first game I think we had 19 turnovers. We’ve cut it down a pretty good amount, but we still have more room to grow. I think the first half we were a little lackadaisical in that area, but cleaned it up in the second half. We would like to keep it in the single digits for turnovers.”
The Wildcats finished with 12 turnovers against the Knights.
Momcilovic, who transferred from Iowa State, has been named to the preseason watch list for the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division I Player of the Year. He is one of 20 players on the initial watch list.
--I enjoy watching UK freshman guard Mason Williams, who was ranked No. 109 overall in the class of 2026 by 247Sports.
In three exhibition matchups, the 6-foot-3 guard has performed exceptionally well, hitting 70 percent of his field goals overall (16 of 23) while making 6 of 9 three-pointers (66.7 percent). Against Central Florida, Williams poured in 18 points, and he had three assists and three steals against Little Rock.
"He’s probably our most steady guard," said Coach Mark Pope after the Little Rock game. "I’m coaching him really hard right now because I have big expectations for him. If we are going to be really good, he’s got to be really good and he’s showing a lot of signs of that and he’s got to mature fast.
"And that’s hard to do. It’s hard to learn all the different facets of this game. But this game was a brilliant experience for him because he got to see how little things matter so much and that’s one of the things that you learn as a freshman. This game helped him understand a little bit. But we have big expectations for him."
Williams is the son of UK assistant coach and former NBA All-Star Mo Williams.
--It is amazing to see that some Kentucky fans are already dissatisfied with Mark Pope and his program. They are even complaining about the current team during a three-game exhibition season in October. By the way, I thought they wanted John Calipari gone. Be careful what you wish for!
--UK begins the regular season on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, SEC Network Plus) at Rupp Arena, where they will face Manhattan. In the 2026 Metro Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Jaspers were ranked 10th out of the league's 13 teams.
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of seven books about UK basketball, including recently published “Unforgettable Journey with the Cats: Inside Kentucky Hoops Madness.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro, he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle44@gmail.com.
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