For UK, the portal recruitment of Otega Oweh carries valuable lessons
It likely was not reflected on your (cell phone) calendar, but Monday was an anniversary of some import in recent Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball history.
Exactly two years ago, on April 27, 2024, then-new UK coach Mark Pope secured a recruiting commitment from a guard transferring from Oklahoma whom On3 ranked as the 193rd-best player available in the transfer portal.
As all who have watched Kentucky men’s hoops over the past two years can attest, that 193rd-rated transfer, Otega Oweh, went on to become the most significant player of the Pope coaching era at UK to date.
In his two seasons rocking Kentucky blue, Oweh scored more points (1,255) than any other player in all of UK’s regal men’s hoops history whose Cats career lasted only two seasons.
While at Kentucky, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Oweh hit buzzer-beating shots to win an SEC Tournament game (over Oklahoma in 2025) and force an NCAA tourney contest into overtime (Santa Clara in 2026). He made clutch plays late in wins over Duke (2024-25), Louisville (2024-25) and Tennessee (2025-26) — arguably the three teams UK backers most yearn to beat.
Put it all together, and Oweh and his successes should have imparted some vital lessons about transfer portal recruiting.
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When a coaching staff is working the portal, evaluation is king.
As a sophomore at Oklahoma in 2023-24, Oweh played his way out of a starting position.
After a stellar performance in the Sooners’ pre-conference contests, Oweh averaged only 8.6 points and shot only 37.6% in Big 12 games (Oklahoma did not move from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference until 2024-25).
Pope had coached against Oweh and Oklahoma in BYU’s debut season in the Big 12 prior to succeeding John Calipari at UK, so he had seen the Newark, New Jersey, product’s game up close.
Still, when Pope brought the Sooner transfer on board at Kentucky, Oweh was widely viewed as a defensive specialist.
At UK, Pope had inherited a roster that did not feature even a single holdover scholarship player. Among the nine transfers Pope subsequently signed, Oweh was only the seventh-highest ranked.
Jaxson Robinson (No. 23), Koby Brea (No. 50), Brandon Garrison (No. 57), Amari Williams (No. 71), Andrew Carr (No. 87) and Lamont Butler (No. 183) all rated ahead of Oweh in the On3 transfer portal rankings.
The only players among that 2024 Kentucky transfer class who ranked below Oweh were Ansley Almonor (No. 345) and Kerr Kriisa (unranked).
When your seventh-rated transfer becomes your top player, that is an evaluation triumph.
When a player is exiting the portal, fit is everything.
In Pope’s five-out offensive system, Oweh found the spacing and driving lanes necessary to unlock his scoring potential.
As a junior, while playing on an offensively adept Kentucky team that finished 10th in adjusted offensive efficiency in the Pomeroy Ratings, Oweh raised his scoring average by 4.8 points (to 16.2 form 11.8) over his final season at Oklahoma.
This past season, while toiling for a less offensively cohesive UK team that finished 40th in adjusted offensive efficiency, Oweh again raised his scoring average (from 16.2 to 18.6). This even as his shooting percentages declined overall (from 49.2% as a junior to 46.5 as a senior) and on 3-point attempts (from 35.5 to 33.3).
“Evaluation” and “fit” were both on display in Michigan’s run to the 2026 NCAA championship. The Wolverines, famously, became the first team to win it all while starting five transfers.
Dusty May’s squad started the top-rated player in last year’s portal, UAB transfer Yaxel Lendeborg, in what was a pure recruiting triumph.
Otherwise, however, Michigan started the players rated No. 52 (Ady Mara), No. 66 (Morez Johnson), No. 73 (Elliot Cadeau) and No. 172 (Nimari Burnett) in the portal rankings by On3.
Cadeau, who went from two so-so years at North Carolina to Final Four Most Outstanding Player for Michigan, is the epitome of a player using the portal to find a better fit for his game.
When evaluating how teams are faring in portal recruiting, recognize that just accumulating transfers with the highest individual rankings from the Internet recruiting sites is not necessarily the straightest route to success.
Oweh lost his starting job at Oklahoma in 2023-24 due to inconsistent offensive performance.
Pope and Kentucky, nevertheless, recognized hidden value in the player ranked No. 34 in 247’s portal rankings in 2024 and 146th in Rivals’.
Oweh exited the portal to join a program whose offensive system unlocked opportunities for him — and found a coach willing to tweak that system to take advantage of his ability to drive the ball downhill.
The result was a player who scored in double figures in 68 of his 72 games in a UK uniform.
That is why, on the two-year anniversary of Otega Oweh’s commitment to Kentucky, it is worth reflecting on the lessons contained in the UK career of the 193rd-ranked player in the 2024 transfer portal class.
