{"id":529151,"date":"2026-01-11T09:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T09:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/529151\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T09:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T09:42:11","slug":"mark-pope-doesnt-want-anyone-to-take-otega-oweh-for-granted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/529151\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Pope doesn’t want anyone to take Otega Oweh for granted"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the third straight game, Otega Oweh<\/a> dropped at least 20 points, but Saturday night was the first time it resulted in a win for Kentucky. It came at a desperate time for the program, too. <\/p>\n

In the Wildcats\u2019 92-68 blowout victory over Mississippi State<\/a>, Oweh finished with 22 points (tying a season-high), five assists, five steals, and three rebounds in 32 minutes of action. It marked his fifth 20-point game of the season, all of them coming within the last seven contests. Despite a slower-than-expected start to the season, the senior guard has yet to dip under 10 points through Kentucky\u2019s first 16 games. <\/p>\n

It certainly feels like Oweh is beginning to hit his stride, the stride that had him viewed as the SEC Preseason Player of the Year coming into the season. The turf toe injury that kept him out of practice for over two months in the summer appears to be a thing of the past. He\u2019s even more comfortable and confident than he was just a few weeks ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really trying to step up,\u201d Head coach Mark Pope<\/a> said of Oweh in his postgame radio hit with Tom Leach. \u201cHe was great in terms of his own game. And I think he\u2019s finding moments to take on a little bit of a leadership role, which we desperately need. You think about Otega Oweh, we can\u2019t take for granted \u2014 he\u2019s 10 for 17 from the field, 22 points, five assists, five steals, three rebounds. It\u2019s really, really impressive and he\u2019s a terrific player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially over the last few games, Oweh has looked incredibly comfortable getting out in transition and bullying his way into the paint. That\u2019s his bread and butter, and he\u2019s leaning on it without doing too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no one that can stop him in the transition,\u201d freshman center Malachi Moreno<\/a> said<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Not only that, Oweh\u2019s been hitting his threes at a good clip as of late, going 2-4 against the Bulldogs. He was 3-4 from deep in Wednesday\u2019s loss to Missouri. The New Jersey native is now up to 36.7 percent on three-pointers this season. <\/p>\n

Defensively, Oweh is staying in front of the other team\u2019s best guards while timing his thievery perfectly. His five steals (one resulting in a windmill dunk) against Mississippi State marked a season-high, just one game after he recorded four steals against Mizzou. There were a couple of slip-ups off the ball, but overall, he\u2019s been locked in on that end. He has 11 games this season with multiple steals. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow magical is he shooting the gap, man?\u201d Pope said of Oweh. \u201cHe is a pick-six wizard, actually, and he\u2019s been really consistent in every game all season long. So he\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Oweh is aggressive like he was on Saturday \u2014 and like he\u2019s been in all three SEC games this season \u2014 he looks every bit like the All-American candidate he was lauded as in the preseason. Now it\u2019s time to start stacking some wins alongside his improving individual play. <\/p>\n

Join KSR Plus! With a KSR Plus membership, you get access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR\u2019s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the third straight game, Otega Oweh dropped at least 20 points, but Saturday night was the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,2339],"class_list":{"0":"post-529151","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\/115875816729621142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529151","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=529151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}