Otega Oweh’s stellar two-year Kentucky career leads to an NBA draft selection
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- Former Oklahoma and Kentucky basketball player Otega Oweh is taken in 2026 NBA draft.
- Oweh was selected with the 41st overall pick in the NBA draft by the Miami Heat.
- While Oweh was drafted by Miami, he is heading to Oklahoma City as part of a trade.
One of the standout success stories from Mark Pope’s two seasons as the Kentucky basketball coach is moving on to the NBA.
On Wednesday night, former Oklahoma and Kentucky basketball player Otega Oweh was selected by the Miami Heat with the 41st overall pick in the 2026 NBA draft, which is being held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Oweh will be heading to the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of a trade. With the Thunder, Oweh will join ex-Cats Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Cason Wallace. The Thunder won the 2025 NBA championship and reached the Western Conference finals this past season.
Oweh played four college seasons, splitting his time evenly between the Sooners and Wildcats. But it was Oweh’s two-year run under Pope’s guidance at Kentucky that set him on the path toward being an NBA draft selection.
Oweh scored 1,255 points during his two seasons in Lexington, which are the most-ever points for a UK player who played just two seasons for the program. He led UK in scoring during both the 2024-25 (16.2 points) and 2025-26 seasons (18.6).
When Oweh transferred from Oklahoma to Kentucky ahead of the 2024-25 season, he was coming off a season in which he averaged 11.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.0 assist per game as a starter for the Sooners. He enjoyed increased playing time and production, especially on the offensive end, during his time with the Cats while developing into a two-way talent.
Oweh led Kentucky in minutes played during both the 2024-25 (28.3 minutes) and 2025-26 seasons (32.8). He played in all 72 Kentucky games over the past two seasons. Oweh — who scored at least 10 points in 68 of his 72 career contests with the Cats — provided the highlight moment of the 2025-26 season when he made a halfcourt heave to beat the regulation buzzer and send Kentucky’s eventual NCAA Tournament first-round win over Santa Clara into overtime.
“I enjoyed my last two years. It was amazing. Coming to Kentucky changed my life,” Oweh told the Herald-Leader last month at the NBA Combine in Chicago. “So I hope the fans remember me for just going out there and giving it my all every single game.”
Oweh — who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in communication from UK — went through the NBA draft process in 2025, before opting to withdraw from last year’s draft and return to Lexington for his senior season.
Oweh is the 145th player from Kentucky to be selected in the NBA draft. He is the second UK player taken in this year’s draft following Jayden Quaintance, who was selected with the 20th overall pick by the San Antonio Spurs during Tuesday night’s first round.
Kentucky has now produced multiple NBA draft picks in 17 consecutive seasons. That’s the longest streak of any program in the country.
Oweh is the fourth player to be selected in the NBA draft after playing for Pope at Kentucky, joining Quaintance and a pair of second-round selections from the 2025 NBA draft, Koby Brea and Amari Williams.
