​After Otega Oweh bulldozed his way to the rim for a game-winning bucket amid a chaotic final stretch, Kentucky head coach Mark Pope recognized that he had discovered a special player. Returning to Oklahoma as the Sooners’ latest program villain, the transfer student refused to be rattled by the hostile environment. When the final horn sounded, Oweh had the last laugh, pouring in 28 points to lead Kentucky to an 83-82 victory over Oklahoma on February 26, 2025. It marked the first of two game-winning plays he would produce against his former school within a two-week span. By the end of the Wildcats’ 2024-25 regular season, Pope had unearthed a diamond in the rough.
“That was probably the moment where I realized, ‘Oh. He’s got an extra gear,’” Pope told Thunder Wire. After two forgettable seasons at Oklahoma, Oweh altered the course of his basketball journey with a bold decision to transfer to Kentucky and bet on himself. Being an average starter for the Sooners simply wasn’t meeting his potential, and the move clearly paid off. He emerged as Kentucky’s leading scorer during his final two years, a period that also coincided with Pope’s arrival as head coach.
That surge in production helped Oweh generate NBA draft buzz, culminating in the Oklahoma City Thunder selecting him with the 41st overall pick in the 2026 NBA draft. On a two-way contract, the 23-year-old forward aims to join a lineage of two-way success stories in Thunder history while also attempting to win back the favor of the previously skeptical Sooners faithful.
In an exclusive interview with Thunder Wire, Pope looked back on Oweh’s two seasons at Kentucky, where he stood out as one of the program’s most reliable players from 2024 through 2026. He averaged 17.4 points and 4.7 rebounds per game and started all 72 contests, a testament to the trust Pope placed in him and the development framework he established to help Oweh maximize his NBA-ready potential.
The contemporary college landscape, with its expanded transfer portal, makes it possible for players to pursue opportunities far more freely than in years past. The days of wading through tedious paperwork and NCAA red tape to switch schools are largely behind us, replaced by a streamlined system that encourages mobility and self-improvement. Yet free rein to switch schools does not guarantee success. When Pope took the reins at Kentucky, Oweh’s relentless motor on the defensive end and his nonstop work ethic instantly caught his eye during their Big 12 clashes between Oklahoma and BYU. Those performances were the impetus for Pope to reach out, persuade Oweh to join the Wildcats, and set the stage for the later breakthrough.
“Oweh’s special sauce is that he’s an elite-level, everyday competitor. He loves to compete. His happy place is competing. It’s one of the reasons I think he’ll be so successful as a pro,” Pope explained. “It doesn’t matter what time of day, late at night or early in the morning—when you turn on a scoreboard, he can’t wait to compete. He’s never tired of it. He might be the most consistent producer I’ve ever coached in my entire career.”
Those intangible qualities helped Oweh seize his new opportunity and step up his game in ways that made the most of his time at Kentucky. From his elevated early role to his sustained production, he demonstrated the kind of growth that suggests not only immediate professional potential but also a lasting impact on a program that believed in him when others doubted.