Kentucky made seven transfer portal additions and inked four incoming freshmen to fill out its 2025-26 roster, but no addition made was more important than retaining guard Otega Oweh for his senior season.
Oweh, a second-team All-SEC selection, led coach Mark Pope's debut Kentucky team in scoring last season, averaging 16.2 points per game; scored in double figures in 33 of UK's 36 games, including the season's first 26 games while hitting two-buzzer beaters to beat his former team Oklahoma, doing so both in Norman and in the SEC Tournament.
After putting together a monster season and helping lead Kentucky to its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2019, Oweh unsurprisingly put his name in the NBA Draft while keeping his eligibility for a senior season open. He took until the May 28 withdrawal deadline to announce his decision after impressing at the NBA Draft Combine and at workouts with several teams but opted to return to Lexington to lead a new-look Wildcat team, a decision he was not at all disappointed to make.
"I still could have gone, but it was more I had one more year of eligibility, and to go try and do the things that maybe I didn't get to complete last year, which was win a national championship," Oweh said Tuesday meeting with the media in Lexington for the first time since announcing his return.
"I feel like there's much more to complete here."
Oweh stated he made the decision two or three days before announcing but wanted to complete his final team workout on May 28 to fulfill the full process.
"Going through the process and then just seeing and hearing where teams will take you, I was like, if I have one more year, I could just go back and improve that stock, and on top of that, if I go back and we win the whole thing, everyone wins," Oweh said. "That was kind of the biggest thing for me. It really felt like we had unfinished business."
The 6-foot-4 guard from New Jersey will be one of just two seniors on Kentucky's roster, along with Florida transfer Denzel Aberdeen, who helped the Gators win a national championship last season.
As the lone returning senior, Oweh will not only be the Wildcats leader on the court this season but off the court.
"I gotta step, I gotta step up and take that role, even if I'm not comfortable, but I definitely am," Oweh said. "I'm excited for this, this new challenge. I've always been, usually, the youngest guy or one of the younger guys on the team, but now I'm a senior.
"I used to always just want to lead by example, but coach, Coach Pope, and even the older guys (last season), they made it a huge thing to not just lead by example. You've got to be vocal because not everybody can always do what you're doing when you're leading by example. So you're just trying to step out of your comfort zone and make things work."
What's next for Oweh in his on-court development?
First and foremost, overall improvement to best ensure he'll be a first round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Then, it's improvement with his three-point shot, but not for the reason many might think.
Oweh's three-point and jump shot features a hitch that many label as awkward. However, it has proven effective as at Oklahoma during the 2023-24 season, he shot 37.7 percent from three, and last season at UK, he shot 35.5 percent.
Thus, NBA personnel isn't worried about the hitch but wants to see Oweh put up more threes as he attempted just 53, making 20 in his final season at Oklahoma, and took 76, making 27 at Kentucky last season.
That is something that will not only help Oweh but help the Wildcats as UK averaged 25.3 three-point attempts per game last season, nearly 10 less than Pope's desired 35 attempts per game and nearly seven less than Pope's final team at BYU attempted (32.0) during the 2023-24 season when it ranked second in the nation in three-point attempts and wound up placing fifth in its first season in the Big 12.
"They really just wanted to see me take more because my percentage was good both years. It was just the volume," Oweh explained. "They really just wanted to see me take more. In terms of mechanics, it's more of like, if you're getting it off, it's fine and I've been getting it off.
"He's (Pope) definitely gonna push that agenda. So, for me, that just means shooting more, and I'm excited for that just to continue to better my game. I feel like that'll help me at the next level."
Oweh's return cements the Wildcats as one of the favorites to cut down the nets early next April. Now, it'll be up to the senior to steer his team in the direction needed to live up to those expectations, which is exactly what he asked for when deciding to come back.