One of the final decisions up against the NCAA’s Wednesday deadline for underclassmen to withdraw from the NBA Draft also ranks among the most important. Kentucky’s Otega Oweh has decided to remove his name from consideration for the 2025 NBA Draft and will return to Lexington for his senior season, sources told CBS Sports.
The call wound up being a close one, per sources, as Oweh’s workouts and interviews over the past two weeks increased his stock. He almost certainly would have been drafted, had he chosen to stay in.
Oweh was UK’s best player last season, putting up a team-best 16.2 points per game along with 4.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals. He shot 49.2% from the field, 35.5% from beyond the arc on a 24-win team that reached the Sweet 16 with a No. 3 seed in Mark Pope’s first tour as coach of the Wildcats. Kentucky brought in an eclectic transfer group a year ago, with Oweh expected to be a key role player.
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Instead, he had more 20-point games than anyone on the roster and proved to be essential in UK’s record-setting season of winning eight games vs. top-15 opponents. Oweh was a transfer from Oklahoma after playing two years for the Sooners. And against his former team last season, Oweh defeated new-to-the-SEC OU twice on a game-winning shots in the closing seconds, including this one to advance in the SEC Tournament.
At 6-foot-4 and 212 pounds (his measurements at the NBA Draft Combine), Oweh will again be a vital piece as a shooting guard and switchable defensive pest for Kentucky. If he continues to improve on his junior season, he’ll have an All-American case. But he won’t have to shoulder too heavy a load. UK also returns power forward Brandon Garrison and shooting guards Collin Chandler and Trent Noah. Pope beefed up Kentucky by bringing on portal additions Jayden Quaintance (Arizona State), Jaland Lowe (Pitt), Denzel Aberdeen (Florida) and Mouhamed Dioubate (Alabama). UK also welcomes in two promising freshmen: five-star PF Malachi Moreno and four-star PG Jasper Johnson.
Even with all of those pieces, Oweh rates as the most valuable Wildcat for now. With him back in the fold, Kentucky will be in the conversation as a top-10 team heading into next season, vying for supremacy in the SEC alongside the likes of Florida, Tennessee and potentially Arkansas.
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