{"id":495572,"date":"2025-12-25T18:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T18:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/495572\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T18:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T18:33:10","slug":"mark-pope-wants-to-see-even-more-out-of-otega-oweh-as-a-mp4t-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/495572\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Pope wants to see even more out of Otega Oweh as a ‘MP4T’ player"},"content":{"rendered":"

Otega Oweh<\/a> showed off his playmaking skills in Kentucky\u2019s final non-conference game of the season. <\/p>\n

The senior guard dished out a career-high 10 assists in the Wildcats\u2019 99-85 win over Bellarmine on Tuesday. It was the highest assist mark for a Kentucky player this season, and the most of Oweh\u2019s four-year college tenure by four (his previous high of six assists came in last season\u2019s NCAA Tournament win over Troy). <\/p>\n

Being an improved playmaker was a goal of his going into 2025-26, and he\u2019s taken steps in that area through 13 games. Oweh is averaging 2.8 assists per game this season, a positive development compared to his 1.7 assists per outing last season. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Otega being a 10 assists guy, I would like that to happen every game for the rest of the year too,\u201d Head coach Mark Pope<\/a> said postgame<\/a>. \u201cI thought that was absolutely fantastic. He\u2019s been trying to find some space to be a MP4T (Make Plays For Teammates) guy. He did it by getting downhill and making plays for guys. He did it by being a quick-turn guy, which is an underrated area of expertise that guys can excel in.\u00a0I thought he was really good that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Jaland Lowe<\/a> sitting out against Bellarmine to rest his injured shoulder, his absence opened the opportunity for other Kentucky guards to make plays. Jasper Johnson<\/a> filled that role nicely, posting 11 points and seven assists. Denzel Aberdeen<\/a> chipped in four assists, with Collin Chandler<\/a> adding three of his own. But Oweh was especially focused on picking apart the Bellarmine zone defense. <\/p>\n

Oweh\u2019s 10 assists \u2014 seven of them coming after halftime \u2014 generated 24 points for Kentucky. He set up Mo Dioubate<\/a> four times for shots in the paint. Three of Kam Williams<\/a>\u2018 eight three-pointers came via an Oweh pass. These weren\u2019t fancy no-look passes or anything, either \u2014 just the right, simple play for his teammates. After three first-half turnovers, Oweh settled in and responded to what the defense was showing him. <\/p>\n

And if you were wondering, Oweh still hit the 10-point mark, extending his streak of reaching double-digit scoring in every game played this season. He also grabbed a season-high eight rebounds against Bellarmine, nearly posting a triple-double in his 33 minutes of action. Two more steals to his stat line have him at eight straight games with at least a pair of thefts. Oweh was also a team-high +14 in the box score. <\/p>\n

Put that entire line together (10 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds, and two steals), and Oweh became just the second-ever Wildcat to post those figures in a single game. The other? De\u2019Aaron Fox<\/a>, who did so vs. Arizona State on Nov. 28, 2016. That\u2019s pretty good company to be in. Oweh knew during the game how close he was to reaching the triple-double, but he\u2019ll gladly take the win as a consolation prize. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to come in and play hard, have a lot of energy,\u201d Oweh said<\/a>. \u201cI was short (on the triple-double), though.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Otega Oweh showed off his playmaking skills in Kentucky\u2019s final non-conference game of the season. The senior guard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,2339],"class_list":{"0":"post-495572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-otega-oweh-22-blair-academy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115781646118626421","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}