Otega Oweh is coming back to Kentucky, another boost to the Cats’ 2025-26 roster
Otega Oweh will return to Kentucky for his senior year of college basketball.
The leading scorer from Mark Pope’s first Wildcats’ team announced Wednesday that he is removing his name from the 2025 NBA draft in order to play one more season at UK, where he blossomed into an all-league-caliber performer over the course of the 2024-25 campaign.
Oweh, who turns 22 years old next month, averaged 16.2 points and 4.7 rebounds for the Cats this past season, starting all 36 games for Pope, who was in his first year as Kentucky’s coach.
“You know, this year exceeded all my expectations,” Oweh said in a video posted to his Instagram account Wednesday afternoon. “Through all the highs and the lows, I found a family in Kentucky forever. So let’s run it back. I’m staying home.”
Oweh was among the first incoming transfers to begin the Pope era after spending his first two college seasons at Oklahoma, and he went from a role player on a Sooners team that failed to make the NCAA Tournament in both of his seasons there to the leading scorer on a balanced UK squad that advanced to the Sweet 16 of this year’s tournament.
Oweh was the only Kentucky player to earn All-SEC honors for the 2024-25 season — he was a second-team selection — and he’ll probably be among the favorites for preseason player of the year honors ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.
Despite his impressive junior year, Oweh — a 6-foot-4 guard from Newark, New Jersey — was not widely projected as a selection in this year’s NBA draft.
Mock drafts from ESPN, The Athletic, Bleacher Report and Yahoo Sports — all posted after the final order of selections was set May 12 — left Oweh completely out of draft range, though it’s possible he could have emerged as a second-round pick later in the process.
ESPN updated its mock draft again after the NBA Combine was finished, however, and Oweh still was not included among the 59 picks in this year’s draft. Koby Brea, at No. 54, was the only UK player mentioned in those projections.
So, Oweh will be back in Lexington next season. He had until 11:59 p.m. EDT Wednesday to make that decision.
In an interview from the NBA Combine in Chicago — where Oweh was one of 75 players to earn an invitation as part of the predraft process — he made clear that he wanted to gather as much information as possible before deciding whether to stay in the draft or return to school.
He also said that he would only stay the professional course this summer if it was clear that he would definitely be picked in the June 25-26 draft.
Oweh also remained in close contact with Pope and the rest of the Kentucky coaching staff as he weighed his options.
“It’s nothing but support from him. Obviously, you know, he wants me to come back to Kentucky,” Oweh said, noting that Pope had been there earlier in the day to watch his first scrimmage at the Combine. “Even during the game, I saw him in the bleachers — he’s cheering and stuff like that. So when you can have your head coach support (you) — and even the whole staff has come down at some point this week just to show face and show that they’re with me every step of the way. I mean, it’s been nothing but love from BBN.”
Pope will obviously have big plans for Oweh’s second season at Kentucky, where he’ll rejoin returning teammates Brandon Garrison, Collin Chandler and Trent Noah, as well as a slew of incoming players.
When you combine the statistics of these four players from last season, Kentucky will be returning 44.2% of its steals, 30.8% of its points, 27.7% of its rebounds and 26% of its assists from a season ago. Those might not be eye-popping numbers, but it’s more than the flat 0% that UK returned from John Calipari’s final UK team to Pope’s first group.
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Oweh’s return to Kentucky
Pope will lose a lot from his first UK team, with veteran players Ansley Almonor, Koby Brea, Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr, Jaxson Robinson and Amari Williams all out of college eligibility and both Kerr Kriisa and Travis Perry transferring elsewhere.
But the Cats’ coaching staff has put together a formidable roster for the 2025-26 season.
Oweh will anchor a backcourt that should be among the best in all of college basketball.
He’ll be joined on the perimeter by former Pittsburgh point guard Jaland Lowe, as well as Denzel Aberdeen, who played a key reserve role during Florida’s run to the national championship this past season. Chandler and Jasper Johnson — a five-star recruit in the 2025 class — will also bring tremendous upside to UK’s backcourt.
Kam Williams, a 6-8 transfer from Tulane with NBA upside, will play on the wing, along with Noah, who showed flashes of his shooting ability during his freshman year at Kentucky. Incoming freshman Braydon Hawthorne — a late, high-upside addition to UK’s recruiting class of 2025 — will give the Cats added depth at the wing position.
Kentucky will also have one of the most intriguing frontcourts in the country.
Garrison is back for his second season, and he’ll be joined by transfer center Jayden Quaintance — a former UK recruit, now projected as a 2026 lottery pick — as well as Alabama transfer Mouhamed Dioubate, McDonald’s All-American center Malachi Moreno, 6-11 Croatian forward Andrija Jelavic and 7-1 Lexington native Reece Potter, who played the past two seasons at Miami (Ohio).
Now that Oweh will definitely be back to help lead that group, Kentucky is expected to start the season in the top-10 range nationally, with realistic Final Four hopes for Pope’s second season.
This story was originally published May 28, 2025 at 4:46 PM.
