After going through the NBA Draft evaluation process, Otega Oweh is returning to Kentucky for his senior season. Oweh wasn’t listed on many mock drafts, but apparently, his decision was closer than we thought.
According to Matt Norlander, Oweh’s workouts and interviews over the past two weeks were so impressive that he “almost certainly would have been drafted” had he stayed in. This morning, on his “Eye on College Basketball” podcast with Gary Parrish, Norlander expanded on that, saying that while Oweh worked himself into draft range, he had more money waiting for him back in Lexington, hence the decision to return to Kentucky.
“It apparently got interesting in recent days just because he really did look his best version of himself in these workouts there and it started to get to a point where maybe a month ago, it was, go through the process and see but you’re not really a projected pick and then he put himself into a position where he would have been drafted had he stayed in, so it gave some hesitation but ultimately Kentucky being one of the richest programs in NIL, I would have to believe that Oweh is making more than $3 million, as he should.”
Gary Parrish went a bit further, suggesting that Oweh, along with Auburn guard Tahaad Pettiford and Alabama guard Labaron Philon, wanted to stay in the draft had all things been equal, but each SEC school had the resources to make sure that they weren’t.
“I wasn’t surprised that Oweh was back to Kentucky, Pettiford back to Auburn, but I do think it is notable that as the deadline approached, there were at least three dudes connected to SEC programs who wanted to stay in the NBA Draft. If you asked them, what do you want to do, all things equal, what do you want to do, they wanted to stay in the draft and yet Alabama was able to lure one of them back, Kentucky was able to lure one of them back, and Auburn was able to lure one of them back. What I do not think is a coincidence is that the SEC was able to, when it came time, let’s put it on the table and see what we can get done. Boom, boom, boom, they were able to get it done.”
With Oweh back, Kentucky’s roster for the 2025-26 season is loaded. Parrish has the Cats No. 12 in his rankings, while Norlander believes they have a case to be in the top ten, and Oweh to be a preseason First Team All-American. As he pointed out, that’s pretty impressive for someone who wasn’t even expected to be one of the three best players on last year’s roster.
“This is a blessed existence. You were the best player on Kentucky last season, you beat eight top-15 opponents, you made it to the second weekend of the tournament. Oweh wasn’t expected to be the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd best player on that roster a year ago today when we knew what Kentucky’s roster would look like in the first year under Pope, but he did become that. He was their leading scorer, had more 20-point games than anyone, hit a couple of game-winning shots against his former school, Oklahoma, and now he gets to come back again and be projected to be the best and most important player.”
Norlander said he’s looking forward to seeing how Mark Pope works the pieces around Oweh, starting with fellow returners Brandon Garrison and Collin Chandler.
“Brandon Garrison is back, I expect him to have a much — he had a solid first season after transferring from Oklahoma State. I expect him to be even better. Collin Chandler, I expect a breakout there. But they bring in this haul of transfers, Jayden Quaintance, we get to see how long it takes for him to recover from his injury. I think he’s expected to be on pace to play when their season starts in November. I think he’ll be big.
Add in the rest of Kentucky’s impressive transfer portal class (Kam Williams, Jaland Lowe, Mouhamed Dioubate, Denzel Aberdeen, and Reece Potter) and four incoming freshmen (Jasper Johnson, Malachi Moreno, Andrija Jelavic, and Braydon Hawthorne), and Pope has plenty to work with.
“Those players and their roles and how they play around Oweh is intriguing to me,” Norlander said. “Kentucky’s got a case to me, now that Oweh is officially back in the fold, to be a top-ten team. This is a big reason for a big celebration for Kentucky fans.
You love to hear it. Listen to Norlander and Parrish break down the rest of the big draft decisions below.
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