Otega Oweh believes UK has the talent to be the nation's No. 1 team. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky basketball got the news it wanted and the news most expected when Otega Oweh pulled his name out of the NBA Draft Wednesday and announced he would return to UK for his senior season.
“I got great feedback from NBA teams, but the consensus was to come back to school and have a great year,” Oweh told ESPN’s Jonathan Givony. “I want to try and up my stock even more, and put myself in a position to win a national championship with all the possible accolades that come with that.
“We have the talent to be the No. 1 team in the country. A lot of guys who are hungry to make that jump, and that intensity to go get national championship No. 9 for Kentucky. I’m excited to play with everyone. It will be a fun year.”
There had been some angst among some UK fans that Oweh was taking so long to make his decision. However, he had a workout set Wednesday and Kentucky coach Mark Pope encouraged him to finish the process to get all the feedback he could from NBA personnel.
However, Oweh apparently thought he would be back at Kentucky for a while because his social media post about his return was made before he had a significant haircut in mid-April. Obviously Oweh was going through the process to get all the feedback he could to help prepare him for the 2026 draft — just as Pope had indicated likely would happen.
Oweh, Kentucky’s leading scorer last season after transferring from Oklahoma, was projected as a late second-round pick in some drafts and not projected to be selected at all in other mock drafts.
Pope said earlier this month that he anticipated Oweh being a much better player next season than he was last year when he was UK’s best all-around player.
“He has so much room to grow,” Pope said. “I think his ceiling as a playmaker, he hasn’t even begun to tap into that. I think he can become an elite, elite-level playmaker.
“Something that he’s talked a lot about is his ability to get his shot off more quickly. He shot the ball really well last year at 36, 37 percent from 3, but to get it off quicker and get more attempts, I think is a big deal for him.
“On the defensive end, his ability to kind of neutralize bigs on the glass and bigs in switches is a place where he can really excel and I think he has a chance to grow into one of the elite steals guys in the country. He’s got a ton of room to grow. He’s an unbelievable player who had a great season last year and it’s pretty fun to talk about.”
He was a second-team all-conference selection after averaging 16.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.6 steals per game. He started all 36 games and avoided injuries that sidelined other UK players at times during the season.
Oweh was remarkably consistent as he scored in double figures in 33 of 36 games and had 13 games with 20 or more points. Twice he hit game-winning shots against Oklahoma.
In a NCAA Tournament win over Troy, he became the first UK player since Walter McCarty in 1996 to have at least 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists in a postseason game.
Oweh scored 584 points last season, the third most of any UK transfer behind Antonio Reeves (667) and Oscar Tshiebwe (590).
18 Responses
He will be the #1 player for UK if #9 is his goal. That means hitting 40% from 3, making layups instead of throwing the ball toward the basket with acrobatic nonsense, SHARING the ball with a 5:2 A:TO ratio average and continuing his tenacious defense. TEAM FIRST ball will lead UK to #9 and will raise him to a 1st round draft pick.
Team Ball for 40 games and not just the first 5-7 games is the key to #9.
I agree. Sometimes he would get tunnel vision and throw up circus shots. But to his defense I heard Pope told him to take over the game when we had alot of injuries. Maybe that wasn’t the right thing to tell someone. He was our most reliable player on the team last year as well. I also noticed he was always better in the second half compared to the first half which shows he has elite stamina. Pope does get them boys in shape. We will run the legs off of every team we play this year. Its going to be fast!
Now with 14 scholarships, who will redshirt?
The limit will be 15 when said and done.
Yea but can you really give 14 guys minutes? There is only 200 minutes to go around. Oweh and Lowe will both be close to 30 mpg. There’s 60 minutes of 200. I would redshirt at least 2 barring injuries. If you play someone in 20 games or so and maybe give them 5 minutes of playing time in those 20 games wouldn’t someone learn just as much in practice were they can actually participate. I would redshirt Potter and Hawthorne and spread the minutes out with everyone else. You will also have situational lineups. Like the best shooters in a lineup or if we need a stop the best defenders in a lineup Pope has so many options its really a good thing. Potter is our insurance down low and Hawthorne can be our insurance as a point forward. He can run the point at 6’9". That’s what makes him so valuable. Hawthorne is a actually ranked higher than Johnson in a couple of ranking systems so who really knows at this point.
Check this 7 vs 7 out. Team#1 Aberdeen Chandler Mo-D Garrison Hawthorne Jelavic Johnson. Vs Team #2 Lowe Moreno Noah Oweh Potter JQ Williams. That’s ABC order and its 2 monster teams. Starters Johnson/Chandler/Aberdeen/Mo-D/Garrison with Hawthorne and Jelavic coming off the bench VS. Lowe/Oweh/Williams/JQ/Moreno with Potter and Noah coming off the bench. Wow I’ve never seen a team this deep. That’s easily 2 top 20 teams you could even say 2 top 15 teams!!!
I have always liked the idea of 2 platoons, with one unit playing the 1st, 3rd & 5th segment each half for 24 min/game.
The other unit plays the 2nd & 4th segment each half for 16 minute per games. It insures fresh legs 40 minutes per game. It minimizes the impact of fouls on any players, players get to know and feel how teammates play and move and think. Team chemistry is so much more consistent with the same players being on the court at the same time.
It’s a formula for a National Championship,
If one platoon is excelling in a specific game, they may get to play 6 to 8 consecutive minutes instead of 4, and the platoon clicking on all cylinders can get the 12 minutes in the 2nd half instead of 8.
That would be perfect balance. You could even run a full court defense and he could always have fresh legs available.
It would be the most effective full court pressure for 40 minutes ever put together! Opponents would be overwhelmed by the last 5 minutes of the gwme, if not sooner.
Let me know if Coach Pope reaches out to you to be the A-team Coach and maybe you can recommend me as the B-Team Coach. In all seriousness, players who always have the same teammates in the floor with them can build a deeper more fluid chemistry than any team with subs flying in & out.
Enjoy the season. I’ll be checking on Noah, Moreno, Johnson & Trotter to see how many minutes they get during the early season, which will determine if they get any serious minutes later in the season.
40-0 with us calling the plays. One thing about this team is we are 2-3 deep at every position. Once we build a 12-15 point lead I would unload the bench. I would play whoever is on fire. They would have to share the ball. Once someone starts playing for themself even one play I would sit them down and explain to them that there’s no I in team. We pass or we sit on our ass 😁. Point blank period the guys who came back will know how to play together. I would start Chandler at the 2 and Oweh at the 3 which would move MO-D to power forward I like him at the 3 but not in this lineup. The Center position is going to be a battle between Moreno Garrison Jelavic and Potter. I think Jelavic is going to be much better than advertised. He’s going to play the 4 and the 5 but now I have him at the 5 to shoot 3s. Garrison also can shoot the 3. He will be much better this year. He will get better playing against this competition. I believe Hawthorne is going to be a monster in 26-27. He was 6’1" the start of his junior year in high school then at the start of his senior season he was 6’7" now at the end of the season now the summer he’s 6’9" and they say he could grow to be 6’11 or 7’0": his wingspan is incredible and shows he has a couple more inches to grow. So he’s kind of like Anthony Davis long and athletic. He shoots and dribbles like a guard. He will be a 6’10"-6’11" redshirt freshman. He needs to put on at least 20 pounds of muscle. Potter needs to hit the weight room too. He’s going to be a very polished player in 26-27. I’m excited finally about the future of Kentucky basketball. Were going to get a good taste of what Mark Pope is going to be this year and Next year we will be very experienced and we will get another Kentucky boy Tay Kinney very very very electric point guard. Lowe will be a senior next year but I expect him to bounce to the NBA after this year. We could have Kinney Johnson Noah Potter Moreno. All Kentucky boys in a lineup and Noah and Potter will be ready to show us what they can really do. I always said Perry and Noah need 2 years to be ready that’s why I would have redshirted them last year and they would have this year as redshirt freshman to learn the speed and to get there bodies ready for SEC beatdowns. As redshirt freshman he could have sprinkled them in the game for 6-8 minutes a game this year then 26-27 they start taking over as Sophomores.
It’s time for Pope to start being the coach and stop being everyone’s buddy. You can’t play 14 guys, someone will have to redshirt. The wildcard is Quaintance…when will he be ready to go 100%? Will he ever be able to go 100%? Lowe will be the starting point guard with Aberdeen as his back up. Oweh will be the starting 2 guard with Johnson as his backup. Dioubate will be the starting small forward with Williams as his backup. Jelavic will be the starting power forward. Garrison will be the starting center. Quaintance, Moreno, and Potter will get the remaining minutes depending on Quaintance’s recovery time. Chandler, Noah, and Hawthorne will see limited cleanup minutes. Hawthorne is the most likely redshirt guy. Chandler, Noah, and Hawthorne could all hit the portal at the season’s end. Get recruited over once, shame on Pope. Get recruited over twice, shame on the guy who got recruited over TWICE. Unfortunately, this is what it takes to win national championships. Someone always gets left out.
Has Pope said anything about playing 14 guys that you mention, i haven’t heard him saying anything about it as matter fact he has mention there’s possibility there will be one or 2 redshirting. Once the house settlement is passed the limit roster will be 15. Barry you assume too much.
79, I am sorry I couldn’t draw a picture for you. I said we now have 14 scholarship players with a limit of 13. I don’t pretend to know the future like you do. Even if the limit is raised to 15 or 100, you can only give meaningful minutes to 8 players and have a couple of practice players and a couple of injury insurance guys. You are the only one who doesn’t get this. Every time you make a post you show just how little you know about college football, basketball, and baseball. You missed the entire point about over recruiting, but every major program does ii to improve their chance of winning. That means a couple of guys are going to get screwed and ultimately end up hitting the portal, like Perry did. You should stick to water colors and making mud pies 79.
Barry, there you go again assuming as always . Oh by the I will mail you a mud pie to your address.. .
You do have a point about recruiting over people but don’t you take the best players that you can take? I mean do you lose with what you have to not recruit better players? The one guy on this team that is a mystery to me is Aberdeen. That’s like Noah staying here 3 years and as soon as he cracks the rotation and will even get the starting nod he transfers to Florida to be a backup? It just doesn’t make any sense to me. Aberdeen will never be in the NBA so was he just trying to cash in his last year of college and if so why would Pope want someone on the team like that?? Its definitely a head scratcher and one player that probably will play ahead of Johnson and Chandler and Pope should have known we were loaded with talent at shooting guard with young players maybe that’s why he did it? He didn’t know how good Chandler or Johnson will be but he pretty much knows what he will get out of Aberdeen? Idk?
Over recruiting is done by all of the major programs. Fans hate to see a couple of guys not play much, but they love winning championships and that is what it takes to win.
Your right you want the best and most athletic players you can get. We have that. Perry transferring made sense because he wants to play and he will get way more minutes at Ole Miss then Kentucky. Yes he could have been a legend here in his own right but I think there is a chance he transfers back his senior year. Noah should have really stayed at South Carolina for 2 years then came to Kentucky for 2 years as a junior and a senior. I’m just saying what makes sense for these kids to get a chance sometimes you have to start small and work work work until you get to were you need to be. I think Moreno Johnson Chandler Noah The Croatian Potter Williams and maybe Lowe and Garrison next year is going to be scary good. If we happen to get 8 or 9 guys back for 26-27 I would only go after the best of the best to add to the team. Tay Kinney will also be a freshman I think he signs with Kentucky he’s a Kentucky boy and he’s best friends with Johnson so they love playing together.
You’ve made the Cats exciting! 40-0 sure sounds great!