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Kentucky coach Mark Pope wasn’t surprised when Otega Oweh was named Southeastern Conference Co-Player of the Week on Monday.
“He could have won it every week of the entire SEC season (so far),” Pope said on his weekly radio show on Monday. “He’s been that good.”
Oweh averaged 22.5 points per game in wins over Oklahoma and Tennessee and shot 60.7 percent from the field last week. He also averaged 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per outing in the two victories.
Oweh has scored 20 or more points in nine of 11 conference games this season, including a season-high 24 points in a 94-78 win over the Sooners. He added 21 in a 74-71 upset of the Volunteers on Saturday night.
“We’ve seen such amazing growth in him,” Pope said. “We’ve seen him grow as a leader. We’ve seen him grow as a defender, especially as an on-ball defender. We’ve seen him grow (overall).”
Pope said Oweh has improved his “decision-making ability” as well on both ends of the floor.
“His ability to hit the short roll, his ability to get downhill, and then his willingness to play off two feet and extend the play (has improved),” Pope said. “Sometimes I look out there over the last few weeks, I’m like, ‘I don’t even know who this guy is.’ He’s so good. … His game now offensively is becoming multi-dimensional, which is really, really exciting, and it’s helping us win.”
One of those big moments occurred when Oweh delivered the game-winning assist on a clutch pass to Collin Chandler for a 3-pointer down the stretch in the win over Tennessee.
“(He) made an unbelievable pass to Collin Chandler,” Pope recalled. “Those are the types of plays that you see from guys that are next-level players.”
Porter Moser, Oweh’s coach at Oklahoma, praised his former guard following a loss to the Wildcats last Wednesday at Rupp Arena.
“Otega is just an elite player,” Moser said. “He can knock down the shot. He puts you in a really decision-making mode off-ball screens, because he can turn the corner on you. Now he’s making really good decisions passing out of it, I just see he’s just becoming a complete player.”
Pope compared Oweh to former teammate Antoine Walker.
“There’s something similar between Otega Oweh and Antoine Walker,” Pope said. “There’s just something similar in terms of their impact on the game and their reliability, especially as Antoine got a little bit older.”
Oweh has scored double figures in all 24 games this season and needs just five points to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau.
8 Responses
Oweh was forcing things at the beginning of the season trying to live up to his pre-season label of SEC Player of the Year. Now, he is more confident in knowing that he doesn't have to do it all by himself. The starting five of Oweh, Aberdeen, Chandler, Jelavic, and Moreno is working…Pope needs to let them play longer together though. Garrison, Noah, and Johnson seem to ok with their roles of reserves and their growth in those roles will take this team from being good to very good. Dioubate is the wild card. He expected to be a starter who would develop a 3 point shot and be the leader of this team; that has not happened and has been a source of internal friction that results in more hero ball play. His game is within 5 feet of the basket. That will not get him in the NBA, but that is where he helps this team the most. If he embraces his role of playing fewer minutes where he focuses on defense and rebounding and is content with scoring opportunities coming from that…this team could challenge Florida for the SEC title and a shot at a Final 4. If not, a fourth place SEC finish and a Sweet 16 appearance will be our ceiling. Oweh is the tail that wags the dog. That was viewed as adversarial by Dioubate and Lowe in November and December. Now, injuries have done more to define roles but the team is better for it. All of this seems to have come about despite of Pope's role as coach. At times, Pope has been the weakest link in the team chain. Pope wanted to be everyone's buddy and keep everyone happy. That just doesn't work when you have 8 to 9 worthy starters and only 5 starting positions. Injuries did more to solve that puzzle than Pope did, but hopefully he has learned something from this. The team has to come first and Pope failed to get this team to accept that in November and December. We are at a tipping point now. A win at Florida would cement Kentucky as the team to beat. A blowout loss could send us spiraling backwards with the remaining schedule that we have. If we show that we can hang with Florida, that could be the springboard that enables us to win the last 6 games and be co-SEC champions at the worst. With a week to prepare for the battle in Gainesville, there is no excuse for us not being competitive at the least and winners at the peak of that game. The result of the rest of our season hinges on this game. Go CATS!!!
Mark Pope needs to see some growth from the 26 recruiting class as he continues to go O-fer. Reported today that Christian Collins (now #3 ranked player) had always been considered a strong Ky lean and is now trending to USC.
Kentucky has too many returning players for high school hotshots to compete with. Next season will see Moreno, Garrison, Jelavic, Williams, Chandler, Noah, Johnson, Potter, and Hawthorne returning. Dioubate will hit the portal. Oweh, Aberdeen, Horn, and Tow are seniors. Lowe probably will return as he is viewed as damaged goods until he can prove himself not. The 10 who return have all 5 starting spots claimed and all 5 first off the bench spots claimed too.
Moreno….Garrison
Jelavic….Potter
Noah….Williams
Chandler…Hawthorne
Johnson….Lowe
Why would any hotshot high school senior want to come to Kentucky and ride the bench?
Our starting 5 have been very fluid all year. Stokes or Collins are good enough to challenge any of our starters. We need at least 1 signature dude to maintain our recruiting chops. If we don't get one a lot of opposing coaches will use that to their advantage. We will be lucky to win half of the games we have left and will still be reviewed as underachiever for the talent and money invested. It is still too early to feel that Pope is the long term answer.
Come on Mike. Keep the faith and hope this good run can continue
It's hard for seniors to be patient Mr. V. I hate to see all of the other bluebloods outcoaching and outrecruiting us. A 5* UK target now heavy lean to the Hogs. As much as I wanted to purge Califraudi, he has been outcoaching/recruiting us since departure.
The high school hotshots are going to go to schools where there are holes in their position.
I think Calapari and Pope have the same record over the last two seasons at this point.
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