What Mark Pope said after more late-game heroics by Kentucky’s Otega Oweh against Oklahoma

As if they needed a formal introduction, the Kentucky Wildcats have arrived in March Madness.

UK, the 6 seed, claimed an 85-84 win over 14 seed Oklahoma in the SEC Tournament’s second round early Friday morning at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville in the most dramatic of circumstances.

After blowing a six-point lead inside the final 40 seconds of the game, UK junior guard Otega Oweh got downhill and finished a difficult shot with his left hand along the baseline with 0.5 seconds to go to rescue Kentucky against his old school. It’s the second time this season that Oweh — who spent his freshman and sophomore seasons at Oklahoma — has made a game-winning shot with just seconds to go against the Sooners.

That basket capped a 27-point scoring night from Oweh, which is the second-best scoring performance of his college career. He had a career-best 28 points in Kentucky’s win at Oklahoma on Feb. 26.

The other major storyline from Thursday night’s game, which tipped off later than planned and extended into Friday morning, revolved around a first-half shoulder injury suffered by UK fifth-year guard Lamont Butler. For the past two months, Butler has dealt with a left shoulder injury, which has sidelined him for six games.

Butler appeared to reinjure that left shoulder (for the second time this season) during the first half against Oklahoma. Butler only played eight minutes in the first half against the Sooners, and underwent X-ray imaging while in the UK locker room. He was ruled out for the rest of the game during the second half.

Kentucky had no new injury concerns ahead of the Oklahoma game, until Butler’s injury resurfaced.

There was obviously a lot for Pope to discuss and explain following his first postseason win as the Kentucky coach.

Here’s everything that Pope said after Kentucky secured its first SEC Tournament win since 2022.

Kentucky will play 3 seed Alabama in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals in the Friday night late game in Nashville.

Question about the injury suffered by Lamont Butler.

Yeah, so we did some imaging at halftime, some manual testing. We’ll know more probably by tomorrow. We’ll know a little more.

Question about the game-winning basket made by Otega Oweh and the play itself.

It’s hard. It’s really hard. It’s actually not an easy thing. We were actually playing at Oklahoma a few weeks ago, and it was the end of the first half. We tried to do the same thing. Jeremiah raced down the floor. You’re trying to be conscious about guarding legal. It’s actually really hard to do.

I thought it was a good call by them. Just really tough to execute when Otega made a play like that.

Question about how UK plans to handle Lamont Butler’s injury with a game potentially each day in the SEC Tournament.

I mean, you go through so many emotions. It’s hard to explain. I was really proud of our guys and our team because your heart is just breaking for Lamont. We already have Jack (Jaxon Robinson) sitting over there. Now Lamont misses the opportunity to be a part of this. It is devastating. It’s devastating, guys, for him.

It’s like a gut-punch. You’re dealing with that emotion but trying to put it away so you can stay focused on the game. Our guys did an unbelievable job of doing that.

We’ll put it together piece by piece. I’m praying like crazy, I will be, that he can find his way back on the floor some point this year. It just doesn’t seem fair. This is not a fair game. I’m not saying that, but man, I would like so badly for him to be able to step on a court again. We’ll see how it goes.

Question about if Otega Oweh was Kentucky’s main option on the final play of the game.

We had Koby in the corner, and we had A.C. diving late. We thought we would get downhill pretty quick. It was 5.4 or 5.6. We got the inbounds pass, the free-throw line. It was just a three-quarter court. We felt like we could get downhill pretty quickly.

There were secondary things. In that sense, we kind of talked about it. Listen, let’s bum-rush to the rim and see what develops. Otega made a great play.

That’s not really the story. The story is this. The story is, like, if I just talk about the last play, you lose the greatness of the moment. The greatness of the moment is that Otega turned it over two times in a row in the last minute, blowing a 10-point lead, which I’m responsible for, he’s responsible for, everybody is responsible for.

What makes that moment so spectacular is he was somehow able, our team was somehow able, to move past the devastation of just kicking to the curb an emotional, hard-fought win and losing Lamont and all the things that came with that.

These guys, these really special guys, that love Kentucky so much and want so badly to perform for this team, they were like, Okay, this thing went totally bad on us, we totally messed this up, all of us, myself included, and then they still stayed present enough to make a game-winning play in the last five seconds. That’s why that play is so special, right?

That’s why I couldn’t be more proud of Otega and the whole team for doing that.

Question about why Kentucky pursued Otega Oweh in the NCAA transfer portal last year.

I had the unfortunate experience of playing against Otega in Oklahoma last year. So you go through five games-plus of scouting him. We got to know him really well during the season. He just is an elite, elite, elite level athlete and a terrific, terrific defensive player that can really get downhill. That’s what we knew about him.

Then you start the recruiting process. You start talking to his mom and dad, his brother. You get to know him. Wow, this guy, you see the stuff on paper, but when you start to get to see the inside of him, it gets really exciting. I had the same experience with every sim one of the guys on this roster.

Question about how Kentucky tried to keep its emotions in check against Oklahoma.

Yeah, we spent a lot of time talking about it. I think Oklahoma did as well. We’re super proud of both teams. I think both teams were very, very specific and pointed about making sure that this was about the game.

I couldn’t be more proud of our guys, and the guys on the Oklahoma team. Lee Anne will make fun of me because I’m saying this because we just won. I think that’s pretty special for two teams to come in with a really, really heated, emotional, ton of personal attacking commentary, then to come to this game and exhibit the self-control to just make it a great game. I think that’s a really special commentary on these kids. I think it’s actually pretty cool.

Question about potentially not playing Lamont Butler in the SEC Tournament and letting him rest for the NCAA Tournament.

I mean, I’m not going to put him in harm’s way for sure. It’s hard ‘cause this matters. Like, it’s hard to explain. When you walk into this arena and you finish a game like that, and the whole game you see all these people. These Kentucky fans, it’s an arena full of Kentucky fans. Most of these Kentucky fans probably have never been able to go watch a game at Rupp Arena because they can’t get in.

They save and plan for a year to come here and do this. I know that sounds unique, and it is really unique. So there’s just this massive pull of our guys. This is our family, we want to take care of them, we want to perform for them. We want this to be great and special for them. You’re also thinking about the NCAA Tournament.

This is real for us. This matters for us. The NCAA tournament obviously matters for us. We’ll just figure it out the best we can. We’ll make the best decisions for Lamont that we can, for sure.

Question about Pope getting angry on the sidelines after a no-call on a potential foul on Collin Chandler.

Trying to decide how honest I should be actually (smiling).

First of all, it was fine. It’s all basketball, right? It’s all basketball. There were two times when I got a little bit distracted. That was one of them. It just is what it is. It just is what it is.

Really proud of Collin. He ran back, got stitches, came back in. We made sure he remembered his middle name, then threw him back out there. It’s incredible what he’s doing.

I’m really proud of him. Super fun opportunity for him to show his toughness and his dedication to this team. It certainly did.

It’s fun to watch these guys grow, man. It’s just really rewarding to watch these guys grow. Collin is certainly growing in huge ways and getting a chance to show it.

Question about trying to make sure Otega Oweh has his emotions in check when playing against his former school.

Well, listen, I think it’s a lot of things. I think Otega has great people that he really loves at Oklahoma. It’s just the nature of the thing. I think part of these two games also is the makeup of the teams and the style of play we both choose to play. In this case it leaves a ton of gap space for Otega to penetrate that he might not see in other situations.

I know there’s something about it. We always talk about when you compete against family, it’s always more, right? Maybe there’s something to that. In terms of tempering Otega, there’s nothing specific about Oklahoma. It’s just helping him try and stay focused on the things that make him great. He’s done a great job with that.

Man, I’m telling you guys, super special. Otega was one of the most distractable guys that we had on our team when we started this season. Like, he was one of the most distractable guys. You talk about like a brilliant moment of not being distractable. It’s so awesome. So proud of him. That’s probably the more fun part of the story.

Question about the challenges of getting his team refocused to play Alabama in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals on Friday.

Yeah, it’s incredibly challenging. That’s why it’s March magic, right? It’s March magic. If you can do it, then you do it, right?

We get to be tested in an epic way. We lost twice to Alabama. They’re a top four or five team in the country. We’re a little beat up and a little shorthanded. All that’s fine.

That’s actually where you write the great stories. That’s why we’re all attracted to March, is because there are just these few teams that step up and do things that nobody thinks they can do, under major duress and all kinds of problems. If you don’t want to be part of that, don’t go to March.

We are dying to be a part of that. We want it so bad. We’re going to go fight and we’re going to see what we can do tomorrow.

This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 2:38 AM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription