While we wait for Otega Oweh to decide whether to return to school or stay in the NBA Draft process, Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope is praising last year’s leading scorer.
“Otega’s physicality is elite,” Pope said in an interview with local media this week. “His physicality on the offensive and defensive end is elite. And that shows up in a lot of ways.
“That shows up in contact, in hits. It shows up in his explosiveness. It shows up in his first steps. It shows up in his ability to navigate guarding guys off the ball through screens and on all the ball through screens by creating space with his chest. In those ways, he’s as good as you’re going to find. He’s really special.
“He grew so much last season in terms of kind of winning the point of attack over and over, whether it was on the ball or off the ball defensively. And, like I say, he has so much room to grow. He hasn’t even begun to tap into that. His ceiling as a playmaker, I think he can become an elite level playmaker.”
So how does Pope think Oweh can get better regardless on if he stays in the draft process or comes back to Lexington?
“I think something that he’s talked about a lot is his ability to get his shot off more quickly,” Pope said. “He shot the ball really well at 36 or 37%, but getting it off quicker and getting more attempts is a big deal for him.
“On the defensive end, his ability to kind of neutralize bigs on the glass and bigs on switches is a place where he can really excel, and I think he can have a chance to grow into one of the elite steals guys in the country. He has a ton of room to grow. He’s an unbelievable player, and he had a great season last year. He’s pretty fun to talk about.”
Pretty fun to talk about, indeed. Imagine if Oweh comes back to Kentucky and is more of a threat from 3-point range. Only 76 of Oweh’s 415 shot attempts were from 3-point range, where he shot 35.5%. But if those numbers go up, Oweh could be on his way to All-American status if he plays at Kentucky in 2025-26.
Oweh did average 1.6 steals per game in 2024-25. He’s really good on the fastbreak. If he can add pull-up jumpers in transition, his game is going to be hard to defend and play against next season at Kentucky or the NBA.
Regardless, Oweh is a really good basketball player. If he returns to Kentucky next season, the Wildcats could potentially have one of the most versatile players in the country.
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