‘He’s there for me’: These Kentucky basketball players love their dogs
The day before Kentucky’s game at Tennessee earlier this season, Otega Oweh and Andrija Jelavic were scheduled to meet with reporters at 10:30 a.m. on campus to preview the rivalry matchup.
Jelavic was there right on time. But UK’s top basketball star was nowhere to be found.
Oweh had played two days earlier with flu-like symptoms. Was he even sicker on the eve of one of the Cats’ biggest games of the season? Would he be able to suit up against the Vols the next day?
As Jelavic started talking, reporters in the room wondered if a bigger story was about to pop.
Oweh turned up about 15 minutes later. The reason for his tardiness? His dogsitter was late.
And the UK senior wasn’t about to leave town until he knew Ace was taken care of.
Oweh adopted the shepherd/lab mix two Septembers ago, once he’d settled into his new home in Lexington and just before the start of his first season as a Kentucky Wildcat.
Ace was just a little more than four weeks old at the time.
“He was a real pup,” the doggy dad said with pride.
On top of the responsibilities of being a college student and playing for perhaps the most followed and scrutinized basketball team in the country, Oweh has to make sure Ace has everything he needs, too.
He knew caring for a puppy wouldn’t be easy, but he’d grown up in New Jersey desperately wanting a dog of his own.
“Yeah, it was crazy,” Oweh said of the early days with Ace. “But I was excited for it, because I’ve always wanted a dog — or even a pet — growing up, but my mom was scared. So when I got to Kentucky, I was like, ‘I’m gonna do this. I don’t care how much work it is.’
“But I feel like it kind of taught me discipline, too. I had to get up early, walk him, take him out to use the bathroom before I get my day started. So, yeah, it definitely was a lot. But, I enjoy it.”
Caring for Ace also means Oweh must come up with a plan for when he’s out of town, which is a regular occurrence once the basketball season begins. His girlfriend takes care of the pup on some road trips. He has a dogsitter for the others.
And a few of his teammates are in the same boat.
Brandon Garrison adopted a Siberian Husky named Nova last summer. Kam Williams got a labradoodle — he named him Knight — in July, shortly after arriving in Lexington as a transfer from Tulane. And once Denzel Aberdeen got settled in town, he found a Cavapoo and named him Deuce.
Other Kentucky basketball players have family dogs back home, but these four Cats shoulder the full-time responsibility of being pet owners in Lexington, all while juggling everything that goes along with playing high-level college hoops.
It’s a lot of work, but the smiles on faces and evident pride when these players are talking about their pooches suggest they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything, even when their furry friends have proven to be more work than anticipated.
All four Kentucky players got their pets as puppies. Every dog owner knows what that means.
Potty training.
“It was a bad first two months,” Aberdeen said with a big laugh.
Deuce took to it pretty well, he quickly added, sticking up for his 9-month-old pal. Still, accidents happen. And it wasn’t uncommon in those early days for Aberdeen to come home to a pee puddle. “And some bad, bad poops on the ground,” he said.
As UK’s players dealt with improving their games in the offseason, there was more work at home. “Yeah, that was a hustle,” Garrison said with a laugh, adding that Nova figured it out, too.
It’s a process.
“I’m still doing potty training to this day, really,” Oweh said of Ace, who turns 2 in July. “He’s gotten much better. He doesn’t use the bathroom in the house, but sometimes — when I leave him out of the cage and I leave the house — he’ll maybe pee, like in the corner. But as soon as he does, he knows it’s a bad thing. So he’ll go straight to the cage, and like discipline himself.”
Sometimes, the players are forced to take drastic measures.
Williams said he brought Knight to the Joe Craft Center once, figuring he was only going to be there for a little while to get treatment and thinking it would be fun for his friend to tag along. The pup had an accident in the UK practice facility. It didn’t deter Williams from future visits. He just made sure Knight was outfitted with a key accessory on those return trips.
“I had to put a diaper on him,” he said. “Because he would just be ready to go anytime.”
The Cats have come home from games and practices to other mishaps, too.
“I left her out one day while I was at practice,” Garrison said. “And I came home to, you know, a lot of stuff messed up. My trash can and stuff. So I was like, ‘That’s not gonna work!’ … I learned my lesson with that. But when I’m there — and she’s not in my sight, but she knows I’m there — she’s a pretty good dog. I feel like she just gets bored and just gets into anything she can when nobody’s there.”
There’s one mystery that Oweh is still trying to figure out. He was gone for longer than he planned one day last season. Ace was in the crate when he left.
“I opened the door, and he’s sitting on the couch,” Oweh said, still incredulous. “I was like, ‘I definitely had you in the cage.’ But I looked to the corner where his cage is, and he collapsed it. He got out. I don’t know how, but he got out. He did use the bathroom in the house, but he didn’t mess up anything.
“But he was just sitting comfortably on the couch. I was like, ‘Wow, that is crazy.’”
There’s not much you can do about that one. Some incidents are avoidable, however.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope is a dog lover, too — the Pope family pooch is named Rupp — and he has invited the players to bring their pets to his house for team gatherings. Aberdeen and Williams said they took the coach up on the offer earlier this season.
“His dog’s cool, too,” Williams said, expressing his thanks that Pope would let Knight come over. There were no accidents. As far as he knew, at least. “Not mine,” Williams said, quick to stick up for his pup.
The other two didn’t want to risk it.
“I did not bring my dog,” Oweh said. “No, no, no. Coach Pope’s crib is too nice. I can’t be the reason that something happens. Zel and Kam, they got, like, more chill dogs. It’s like the doodle kind. They’re really relaxed. My dog, he would play all day — energy on 10 — so I just don’t know about that one.”
Garrison also declined the invitation for a four-legged plus-one.
“Because I was thinking the same thing. I didn’t want to be the only dog owner that got my dog running wild and stuff,” he said.
Breaking something in the Pope house was a concern. Leaving something behind was, too.
“And Pope’s house is too big,” Oweh said. “He might leave a stain, and they might not find it for like a month or so.”
That’s not as big of a problem with cats. But these Cats don’t sound too fond of felines.
“I’m scared of cats, to be honest,” Aberdeen admitted.
“I’m just not a fan of cats,” Garrison said. “I just feel like they’re too quiet, and, like, just sneaky. I don’t know. I really just don’t vibe with them. Nothing against them. But I just feel like I couldn’t own one. I feel like they just rely on themselves too much.”
Williams had similar thoughts.
“Nah. I can’t deal with a cat,” he said. “Everybody that I know says that cats are just bad and stuff like that. And if a cat scratches me, I’m gonna be mad.”
Williams went on to explain why other pets weren’t high on his wish list either.
“A turtle? That’s just like, ‘I can’t do anything with you, for real. You gotta be in your cage. And you’re slow. I can’t walk you.’ A fish? ‘You’re just like in your (tank) the whole time.’ And then people have gotten hamsters. I’m not dealing with that either. All you’re gonna do is just run on a wheel? I’m not dealing with that. So, I mean, a dog just made the most sense. And that’s like my favorite animal that you can own, legally.”
Yes, these Cats are clearly dog people. And that’s always been the case.
Garrison had two Rottweilers growing up in Oklahoma City. His grandmother had a place in the country, where he would ride horses and play with other animals as a kid. Williams had dogs growing up, too. Aberdeen actually had a black lab named Uno when he played for the Gators.
He took Uno home to Orlando last offseason. When it was time to move to Lexington, his mom thought it would be best if Uno stayed in Florida.
“It was real tough. I didn’t want to leave him,” he said. “I actually wanted to bring him with me, but my mom loved him so much. She was like, ‘Nah, you can’t have him.’”
After UK’s final game before the Christmas break — and a few hours before he was set to fly home to Florida — Aberdeen said he couldn’t wait to see Uno again.
“I was back for about two and a half days. So I spent all those two days with him and my family,” he said. “I took Uno to the dog park. I walked him around. Yeah, so we reconnected. And it was kind of sad leaving him, but I’m gonna see him again soon.”
He’s looking forward to introducing Deuce and Uno after the season.
Oweh is still new to having a dog of his own. And the experience has come with a surprise. His mom loves Ace.
“Yeah, it’s crazy,” he said. “I would have never thought. She was terrified of dogs. Now she cuddles with him, plays with him. It’s wild.”
From the sound of it, the dogs of UK basketball are just as active as the Cats on the court.
The Wildcat Coal Lodge, which does not allow pets, is still home to some UK players, but many on the team find housing off campus, as has been the case for years now. Oweh and Garrison specifically looked for places with more space this season so their dogs would have plenty of room to run around. Williams also moved from an apartment to a house, in part so Knight could have a big backyard to play in.
“When he gets them zoomies, it’s bad,” he said.
Garrison loves taking Nova on walks and says she gets along with everybody, so the dog park is a common spot, too. He even convinced a skeptical Oweh to bring Ace along a couple of times. Aberdeen, who has a dog park at his apartment complex, and Williams have gotten the similarly sized Deuce and Knight together for puppy playdates.
And even energetic dogs need time to relax.
Williams said he puts “Bluey” on autoplay when he leaves the house. “He’ll just sit there on the couch and watch it.”
Aberdeen’s pup has similar tastes. “Sometimes when I leave, I do put on ‘Paw Patrol’. I don’t know why I started doing that, but he’ll be watching it. So that’s his show, I guess.”
Nova doesn’t watch TV, said Garrison.
What about Ace?
“He watches what I watch,” Oweh declared. That usually means basketball videos on YouTube, shows on Netflix or “Boondocks” reruns.
At the end of the day — especially the more difficult ones — these dogs play an important role for Kentucky’s basketball players. That feeling when you walk in the door and there’s a wagging tail waiting just for you is one that all dog lovers can relate to.
“It’s always good, because you come home and she’s just happy to see you. And just loving you and stuff,” Garrison said. “And I feel like dogs, they can be that support for you at times. Even if you don’t think so, sometimes you need it, and it’s good you got a dog. So after tough losses — or, you know, just like not a great day or whatever — you just come home and see your dog happy. It makes you happy.”
Oweh agreed.
“Yeah, that’s what I tell my mom and my brothers,” he said. “If you struggle with putting high expectations on yourself — especially my brother, because he plays (in the NFL) — I’ll tell ’em, ‘Get a dog.’ Because they don’t know what happened. They don’t know if you just had a game. They don’t know what you just did. So they’re still gonna have the same energy toward you, and you can’t be mean or just shun them. That would be messed up.
“So anytime I have a rough game, or we lose, I come home and I immediately feel better, just because I know I gotta give my attention to him.”
In a UK basketball season filled with ups and downs, that support has been invaluable.
“Sometimes when I try to stay mad, he’s always just happy — just jumping on me and stuff. So it’s kind of hard to stay mad,” Aberdeen said. “That’s one thing about him. He’s just always happy, always running around, always making me laugh and stuff like that. Basically, he’s there for me. So whenever I come home, he’s just always ready to cuddle, always ready to play around.
“It’s just nice having someone to come back to. … He just means a lot to me.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2026 at 6:30 AM.
