By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today sports editor
Kentucky coach Mark Pope wasn’t surprised when Otega Oweh was named Southeastern Conference Co-Player of the Week on Monday.
“He could have won it every week of the entire SEC season (so far),” Pope said on his weekly radio show on Monday. “He’s been that good.”
Oweh averaged 22.5 points per game in wins over Oklahoma and Tennessee and shot 60.7 percent from the field last week. He also averaged 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per outing in the two victories.
Oweh has scored 20 or more points in nine of 11 conference games this season, including a season-high 24 points in a 94-78 win over the Sooners. He added 21 in a 74-71 upset of the Volunteers on Saturday night.
“We’ve seen such amazing growth in him,” Pope said. “We’ve seen him grow as a leader. We’ve seen him grow as a defender, especially as an on-ball defender. We’ve seen him grow (overall).”
Pope said Oweh has improved his “decision-making ability” as well on both ends of the floor.
“His ability to hit the short roll, his ability to get downhill, and then his willingness to play off two feet and extend the play (has improved),” Pope said. “Sometimes I look out there over the last few weeks, I’m like, ‘I don’t even know who this guy is.’ He’s so good. … His game now offensively is becoming multi-dimensional, which is really, really exciting, and it’s helping us win.”
One of those big moments occurred when Oweh delivered the game-winning assist on a clutch pass to Collin Chandler for a 3-pointer down the stretch in the win over Tennessee.
“(He) made an unbelievable pass to Collin Chandler,” Pope recalled. “Those are the type of plays that you see from guys that are next-level players.”
Porter Moser, Oweh’s coach at Oklahoma, praised his former guard following a loss to the Wildcats last Wednesday at Rupp Arena.
“Otega is just an elite player,” Moser said. “He can knock down the shot. He puts you in a really decision-making mode off-ball screens, because he can turn the corner on you. Now he’s making really good decisions passing out of it, I just see he’s just becoming a complete player.”
Pope compared Oweh to former teammate Antoine Walker.
“There’s something similar between Ortega Oweh and Antoine Walker,” Pope said. “There’s just something similar in terms of their impact on the game and their reliability, especially as Antoine got a little bit older.”
Oweh has scored double figures in all 24 games this season and needs just five points to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau.
Gametracker: Kentucky at Florida, 3 p.m., Saturday. TV/Radio: ABC, UK Radio Network.