On March 2, 2026, Otega Oweh sat down with the media ahead of Kentucky’s matchup against Texas A&M.
With March underway and postseason play looming, the senior was entering the final weeks of his collegiate career.
Asked to name his favorite moment at Kentucky, Oweh didn’t look back.
“I feel like my favorite moment is still ahead of us. So, we’re gonna see.”
Seventeen days later, Kentucky found itself in a first-round NCAA Tournament battle with Santa Clara, a game that was far too close for comfort.
Then it happened.
With 2.7 seconds left and Kentucky down, the ball found Oweh.
It looked destined to be the final shot of his college career.
It wasn’t.
The shot from beyond the arc splashed through the net, forcing overtime and helping Kentucky secure an 89-84 victory.
Seventeen days after saying his favorite moment at Kentucky was still ahead of him, Oweh had found it.
While the shot will be remembered as one of the greatest buzzer-beaters in Kentucky history, the fact that it came from Oweh was far less surprising.
“It’s Otega. He proved that he can make game-winners. When it went up, it looked very good and I just knew it was going in,” Brandon Garrison said.
This wasn’t Oweh’s first time delivering for Kentucky in the final seconds.
It wasn’t his second, either.
In just two seasons as a Wildcat, Oweh made eight potential game-tying or go-ahead baskets in the final minute of regulation or overtime.
Seven went in.
Six ended in Kentucky victories.
The confidence Oweh carried into the biggest moments helped define his career, but it was only one piece of the legacy he left at Kentucky.
On Oct. 21, 2021, Otega Oweh officially enrolled at the University of Oklahoma after committing to the Sooners a year earlier.
A four-star prospect, Oweh was ranked No. 70 nationally, the No. 5 shooting guard in the 2022 class and the No. 2 player in New Jersey by 247Sports Composite rankings.
He chose Oklahoma over several Power Five programs, including Illinois, Penn State, Miami and Georgia.
Oweh narrowed his decision to Oklahoma and Penn State, where his brother Odefe played football, before ultimately choosing the Sooners.
“ I just felt that when I went down there to visit, I didn’t want to leave…I followed my heart and I’m really excited.”
In his first season with the Sooners, Oweh played a limited role, appearing in 28 games with nine starts while averaging 4.8 points per game.
One year later, that changed.
Oweh emerged as a full-time starter, earning 28 starts and averaging 24.8 minutes per game in what became his breakout season.
His production jumped to 11.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, one assist and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 49.3% from the field and 37.3% from 3-point range.
Oklahoma finished the season 20-12 overall before falling to TCU in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, ultimately missing out on a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Just 12 days after Oklahoma’s season came to an end, Oweh became the first of four Sooners to enter the transfer portal.
He later took official visits to Oregon and Texas A&M before announcing his commitment to Kentucky on April 27, 2024.
No one knew it then, but Kentucky just landed what would become one of the most impactful transfers in program history.
In his first season as Kentucky’s head coach, Mark Pope assembled an entirely new roster, bringing 10 transfers to Lexington.
Among them was Oweh.
Year one in blue and white exceeded every expectation. What was supposed to be a rebuilding season instead ended with Kentucky battling its way to the Sweet 16.
The Wildcats also made history, recording eight wins over top-15 opponents – the most in program history and tied for the most in college basketball history.
Oweh caught the attention of Big Blue Nation almost immediately, scoring a team-high 21 points in his Kentucky debut.
It was the first of 15 games in which he would lead the Wildcats in scoring and the first of 13 performances of 20 or more points during his debut season in Lexington.
In fact, Oweh scored fewer than 10 points in just three games all season.
Oweh’s return for the 2025-26 season was far from guaranteed, as he declared for the 2025 NBA Draft and tested the professional waters following his breakout junior campaign.
However, exactly two months after Kentucky’s season came to an end, Oweh announced he would return to Lexington for one final season in blue and white.
By October, expectations for Kentucky were through the roof.
Ranked No. 9 in the nation to start the season, a national title run was on everyone’s mind.
Leading the way was Oweh, who entered his senior season as the SEC Preseason Player of the Year, a First Team All-SEC selection and a Preseason All-American. He also earned spots on the watchlists for the Naismith Trophy, NABC Player of the Year, Jerry West Award and Oscar Robertson Trophy.
However, the hype fell as quickly as it grew.
There were expected to be growing pains for a team that returned just four players who played significant minutes from the previous season.
What wasn’t expected were the struggles Oweh faced.
The Cats sat at a disappointing 5-4, having lost all four of their Power Five matchups. The low point came in a 35-point loss to No. 11 Gonzaga, Kentucky’s worst defeat since 2009.
As a result, the Wildcats went from a preseason top-10 team to unranked in the AP Poll.
A total reset was needed. With only four games remaining in the nonconference schedule and less than a month before an SEC opener on the road against Alabama, somebody had to step up.
Fortunately for Kentucky and Oweh, the leader everyone expected him to be finally emerged on Dec. 9.
Oweh recorded his first 20-point game of the year, finishing with a team-high 21 points while also leading the Wildcats with seven rebounds and four steals. He shot 75% from the field and 75% from 3-point range in the win.
“I mean, I’m the leader…I’m the oldest guy here. I feel like a lot of the guys, they look to me to set an example. So, a lot of it is on me, on why our intensity, I feel like, hasn’t been there.” Oweh said following the win.
Oweh was the first to admit he had been underperforming, both on and off the court, and said he was focused on becoming a more vocal leader.
That leadership was put on display in Kentucky’s very next game.
Kentucky would go on to pull off back-to-back wins over ranked opponents, first against its longtime rival Indiana and then against No. 22 St. John’s.
Oweh played a key role in both victories, scoring 10 points against Indiana before following it up with a 20-point performance against the Red Storm.
However, it wouldn’t be until the start of SEC play in January that the Oweh Kentucky, Big Blue Nation and the rest of the country had been waiting for finally arrived.
In Kentucky’s SEC debut against No. 14 Alabama, Oweh led the Wildcats in points (22), rebounds (8) and assists (3).
While Kentucky ultimately fell short, Oweh set the tone for what was to come.
Through the first four games of SEC play, Oweh shot 52.6% from the field and 50% from 3-point range while averaging 18.8 points, five rebounds, 3.3 assists and three steals per game.
Slowly, the rest of the team started to follow.
The team’s best game came against Oklahoma, a team Oweh once wore across his chest.
Oweh always said the matchup meant a little more to him.
His teammates made sure he wasn’t the only one who showed up.
Two games later, on Feb. 14, Oweh hit another milestone.
He became the 17th player in program history to score at least 1,000 points in his first two seasons at UK and just the fifth transfer to reach 1,000 career points as a Wildcat.
Oweh’s success continued even when the rest of the team fell short.
In back-to-back losses to Georgia and Auburn, Oweh scored 28 points to tie his career high before following it up with 29 points against the Tigers to set a new one.
March quickly arrived, and with it came an emotional Senior Night.
Rupp Arena erupted as Oweh emerged from the tunnel for his final home game as a Wildcat.
He delivered yet another standout performance, finishing with 28 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Oweh scored 17 of those points in the first half and knocked down a career-high four 3-pointers, marking his 14th 20+ point game of SEC play and 16th of the year.
Although the game ended in another loss, Oweh remained a bright spot for a Kentucky team that finished the regular season 21-13 (10-8 SEC).
Four days later, the Wildcats returned to the floor at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., for the 2026 SEC Tournament.
For the first time in program history, Kentucky was playing on Wednesday after earning the No. 9 seed.
Once again, Oweh led the way, finishing with 23 points, eight rebounds and three assists.
In the process, he made history once again, passing Antonio Reeves (1,155) for the second-most points in a two year span by a UK player.
Luckily for Oweh, the rest of the team stepped up as well, helping Kentucky secure an 87-82 victory over LSU and advance to the second round.
The Wildcats would go on to defeat Missouri before falling to Florida in the quarterfinals. Through it all, Oweh continued his consistent play, scoring in double figures in both games.
After a much-needed break, Kentucky made the trip to St. Louis for the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The Wildcats’ first-round matchup against Santa Clara was nothing short of a miracle, thanks to Oweh’s game-winning buzzer beater.
However, that was only one of the many milestones he reached that night.
In a team-leading 35-point, eight-rebound, seven-assist performance, Oweh etched his name into the Kentucky record books once again.
With the outing, Oweh became Kentucky’s all-time leader in points scored through a player’s first two seasons, surpassing Bill Spivey’s mark of 1,213.
It was a record Oweh never saw coming.
That night, Oweh didn’t just make Kentucky history – he made NCAA history as well.
With 35 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, Oweh became just the fourth player in NCAA history to reach those marks in a single game, joining Oscar Robertson, Bill Bradley and Larry Bird.
The next game wouldn’t go in Oweh’s or Kentucky’s favor, as the Wildcats saw their season come to an end against Iowa State.
For Big Blue Nation, however, that loss was far from the lasting memory of Oweh’s time in Lexington.
“Otega Oweh, not only put incredible performances on the court that BBN will remember forever, but he also grew as a man and grew as a leader in his own way,” Pope said following the loss.
Oweh finished the 2025-26 season with 30 double-digit scoring performances, including 17 games with 20 or more points, and set a program record for points scored by a transfer in a single season with 671.
Across 36 games, he led Kentucky in scoring 17 times, rebounding eight times and assists eight times.
Over his two seasons in Lexington, Oweh led the Wildcats in scoring in 33 games, rebounding in 13 and assists in 12.
Oweh earned NABC All-District honors in both seasons at Kentucky, including First Team recognition in 2024-25 and Second Team honors in 2025-26.
He was also a two-time Second Team All-SEC selection, won two SEC Player of the Week awards and led Kentucky in both scoring and steals in back-to-back seasons.
Seventy-two games, 1,255 points, 341 rebounds, 158 assists, 121 steals and 28 blocks later,
No. 00 officially hung up his shoes for the final time in the blue and white.
For Oweh, his Kentucky career came down to a single word: Unforgettable.
In an era defined by the transfer portal, Oweh became the blueprint for what a transfer could be.
It was a reminder of what can happen when a player finds a place that believes in him as much as he believes in himself.
While Oweh didn’t end his career cutting down the nets as he expected, there is no doubt he has left a mark on Kentucky that will never be forgotten in Lexington.
If there was a will, there was a way, and Oweh never let Kentucky down when the lights were shining the brightest.
