Where do you even go from here if you’re Otega Oweh? As an All-SEC honoree in 2024-25, the 6-4 guard scored in double figures in each of Kentucky’s first 26 games and 33 of 36 overall while setting career-highs in points (16.2), rebounds (4.7), assists (1.7) and steals (1.6) per game. He was a man […]
Where do you even go from here if you’re Otega Oweh? As an All-SEC honoree in 2024-25, the 6-4 guard scored in double figures in each of Kentucky’s first 26 games and 33 of 36 overall while setting career-highs in points (16.2), rebounds (4.7), assists (1.7) and steals (1.6) per game. He was a man on a mission, emerging as a legitimate star for the Wildcats
Knowing Mark Pope was getting that kind of guaranteed production back for one final season in Lexington, the second-year coach found himself singing all summer.
“When it worked out that he was coming back, I couldn’t get ‘Oweh, Oweh, Oweh, Oweh’ out of my head, man,” Pope told Matt Norlander of CBS Sports. “It’s just the gratitude. He’s got so much more to his ceiling, clearly, you know?”
Those eight weeks of workouts from June to early August are different than traditional preseason practices with an emphasis on teaching more than live competition. These Wildcats couldn’t help themselves, though, coaches forced to tell them ‘whoa’ instead of ‘go.’
“I’ll tell you what I was most impressed with — the summer sometimes, we keep it at a little bit of a different cadence,” Pope explained. “In the summer, we try and keep it to a cadence where it’s like, super constructive, and we kind of dial the competition back a little bit to focus on skill and understanding and IQ. This group was impossible to hold back.”
Leading the charge? None other than No. 00, who showed new things that left Pope dreaming bigger than he ever imagined regarding his potential.
“Otega Oweh, coming in the summer after he’d gone through the entire NBA process, after he had one of the historic seasons as a player at Kentucky — which is hard to do — with no break comes in here,” Pope said. “He did things defensively this summer that I would walk off the floor and be like, ‘I don’t even understand what I’m seeing on the court.’ It’s a real credit to him.”
When you talk about Oweh’s ceiling, the conversation starts with National Defensive Player of the Year, his coach believes. That’s how he looked in practice, taking his game to another level on that end of the floor.
“He’s growing as a defensive player — I think he has a chance to be the top defensive player in the country, the most versatile,” he continued.
As for the other stuff, Pope believes Oweh can expand his game as a playmaker beyond the downhill finishing threat he was known as in year one at Kentucky. We all know about the scoring, but what about finding teammates and creating for others as a do-it-all offensive threat?
That’s the next step.
“He’s spending a ton of time growing in his decision-making and as a playmaker,” he said. “I think he actually has a chance to become an elite-level playmaker — and, of course, he spends that time.”
Oweh could have kept his name in the draft and heard his name called — that part is obvious. Instead, he returned to improve his game and help lead the Wildcats to a national championship.
Pope is grateful for the opportunity to coach him during that individual and team journey.
“To get to witness him grow through this next step in his evolution is a gift. That’s the best part,” he previously told KSR. “He’s going to grow — he’s going to grow exponentially again, and he’s going to help us win a ton of games. He’s going to play great basketball and he’s going to put himself in even better position to be a pro.
“Being able to watch that up close and be a part of that? That’s the best part.”
Category: General Sports
