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He was named the Southeastern Conference Preseason Player of the Year but that also put him in the spotlight to receive a lot of criticism when Kentucky’s season did not go as expected in November and December.
However, senior Otega Oweh is now playing like the SEC Player of the Year. He has scored 20 or more points in six of the last eight games, including 21 points in Wednesday’s win at LSU. He has reached 20 points in all four SEC games, something no UK player has done since 2009 when Jodie Meeks scored 20 or more in seven straight games to open league play.
The senior guard has scored in double figures in all 17 games this season and in 20 straight games going back to last season.
Oweh is also turning up his defensive output as he’s had at least one steal in 12 straight games and had two or more steals in 11 of those games.
“When no one else is doing anything, LSU can have one man on Otega and another guy double teaming him and also a big coming to help (if he drives),” UK Radio Network analyst Jack Givens said after the LSU win. “Once we got into the second half and other guys were making 3’s, Oweh got more one-on-one situations.
“Nobody is going to stop him in one-on-one situations getting to basket. I know Oweh gets a lot of blame when things do not go right but if no one else around him is doing anything, he has to go against two or three guys and he won’t be as productive. It was nice to see him take over (in the second half at LSU) but nicer to see more guys get involved on offense and defense.”
He is averaging 15.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game and has been a double figure scorer in 50 of 53 career games at Kentucky.
Oweh’s play at LSU when UK rallied from an 18-point deficit in the second half was even more impressive because he was sick Wednesday morning and missed UK’s shootaround trying to conserve his energy.
“Otega Oweh, another heroic performance from him — and he couldn’t even make it to shootaround this morning. He was so sick,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “He’s been really under the weather and just battled through it tonight.”
Pope knew how much Oweh’s leadership meant to the team during its dramatic comeback after the Cats played a horrendous first half.
“There were 15 times in the second half where we could have folded and there were more than that in the first,” Pope said. “But they just kept hammering away. I think Otega’s leadership was great. I think D.A.’s (Denzel Aberdeen’s) leadership was great.
“I thought we got a lot of great concerted efforts where our guys did a good job not paying attention to the scoreboard and just trying to continue to compete harder and harder.”
2 Responses
Oweh was huge, but it all starts with Aberdeen. Hopefully he learned something from the LSU game…when we pass, we win.
Oweh has actually gotten better. He's starting to turn a corner. He is shooting 3% better from 3 compared to last year. He averaged 1.2 assist per game last year. This year he is averaging 3 assist per game. I would love for him to pass the ball a little better but I've noticed when he gives the ball up he always gets it right back. This team goes as Oweh goes. If he gets other guys involved it makes it easier for him to score. We need Oweh to be on top of his game for the rest of the season. Its the only way we have a chance to do some damage. If Oweh can keep knocking down his 3s at 38% or better we have a real chance to stir things up in the SEC. What really excited me is the future of Kentucky basketball. Jelavic and Moreno are both studs for freshman. Yes Moreno was a top 25 recruit but Jelavic came out of nowhere. I can see both of them having huge seasons next year. Along with Johnson, Chandler, Williams, Hawthorne, Potter, and Noah. We will have a much better roster next year. JQ was more wasted money. Calzada and JQ should make a song about finessing Kentucky out of millions.