Bruce Pearl praises Otega Oweh as an 'impossible cover' and 'the best athlete in the league'

Otega Oweh made a name for himself on the national stage with a career-high 28-point performance against his former team earlier this week. After a rough first half in Kentucky’s 83-82 win Wednesday over Oklahoma in Norman, Oweh exploded for 23 points after the intermission, scoring 18 straight for the Wildcats in the final 8:38 of action. He hit the go-ahead game-winning floater and followed it up a few seconds later with the game-sealing block.

How will he follow up that record-setting game against the nation’s top-ranked team, the Auburn Tigers, on Saturday? Head coach Bruce Pearl has him at the top of his scouting report to make sure there isn’t a repeat performance, but he knows that’s much easier said than done.

“He might be the best athlete in the league and an impossible cover,” Pearl said of Oweh on Friday. “He’s a monster. Oweh is a very tough cover and he can get downhill, he can make tough twos, he gets to the foul line probably fifth- or sixth-most of every guard in our league. Guarding (him) without fouling is difficult. He can make the three-point shot. He’ll make incredible defensive plays, blocking shots. He’s got that next-level athleticism.”

Oweh ranks 10th among all SEC players in fouls drawn per 40 minutes at 5,5, according to KenPom. He’s sitting at 31 percent shooting from deep in conference play, which isn’t a great number, but one that means a defense can’t just straight-up ignore him. His defense, as Pearl pointed out, adds a whole other layer to his impact.

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It’s actually that end of the floor where Oweh has impressed his own head coach the most as of late. His offense is what fueled Kentucky to a win over Oklahoma, but the consistency he exudes on defense is what makes him an All-SEC candidate. His defensive effort was equally as important as his scoring against the Sooners.

“Going back and watching the film, I love his defensive intensity,” Mark Pope said Friday. “He had sustained such a tremendous defensive effort the entire (Oklahoma) game. The last eight minutes for him was really special, offensively. The first 32 minutes of the game — he didn’t play the whole time — was… less-than-inspiring. But I thought the entire game he had a ton of juice defensively. He’s been upping his defensive effort and focus — seems like every single game for the second half of the season.”

Defense was Oweh’s calling card when he transferred from Oklahoma to Kentucky. He’s lived up to that billing so far. In SEC games, Oweh is averaging 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks per outing. The ability to slide his feet as if playing on a sheet of ice makes for tight on-ball pressure.

But regardless of if he’s playing offense or defense, Oweh (for the most part) doesn’t let one bad play turn into two. The lone example of him not living by that rule was when he scored a season-low two points against Alabama last weekend. Otherwise, he’s the definition of consistency. Despite scoring just five points on 2-7 shooting in the first half against the Sooners, he bounced back in historic fashion in the second.

“One of the great things about Otega is he doesn’t carry a lot of baggage around with him,” Pope said. “He just is on to the next play. He’s pretty present. And I thought he did a great job moving onto the next play and the next play and the next play. He just did them all in a sequence where he scored all the points.”

If Kentucky wants to take down the best of the best Saturday in Rupp Arena, they’ll need another tremendous effort out of Oweh.

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