Otega Oweh may have saved and ignited the Mark Pope era with his career performance
· Yahoo Sports
March has a way of changing the trajectory of teams and programs.
Visit amunra.help for more information.
It happened to Gonzaga when, in 1999, Casey Calvary tipped in a shot with seconds remaining in the Bulldogs’ upset win over Florida in the Sweet 16. Gus Johnson, calling the game for CBS, famously punctuated that play by saying, “GONZAGA! The Slipper. Still. Fits!” Gonzaga has been among the nation’s best programs since.
That same season, Richard Hamilton swished a buzzer-beater for UConn in the Sweet 16. The Huskies went on to upset Duke in the National Championship in 1999, their first of six national championships in the last 28 years.
In 2011, Kentucky’s Brandon Knight made game-winning jumpers against Princeton in the First Round and Ohio State in the Sweet 16, propelling the Kentucky Wildcats to the Final Four, their first since 1998 and first in John Calipari’s tenure as their head coach. Kentucky would win the national championship the next season and play in the Final Four again in 2014 and 2015.
Speaking of 2014, does anyone want to take a few minutes and remember Aaron Harrison? Three game-winners, taking No. 8 seed Kentucky, a team loaded with freshmen talent that had its ups and downs that regular season and SEC Tournament, all the way to the national championship game.
Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Santa Clara, Otega Oweh hit a miraculous three-pointer as the buzzer sounded to tie the game 73-73 and send it to overtime. Kentucky went on to win the game in overtime, 89-84, to advance to the Second Round on Sunday.
This is the kind of shot that can change the trajectory of this season and the Mark Pope era at Kentucky from a player whose legacy will long be remembered as Pope’s first star player.
That’s an all time tournament memory for me. Feels like that saved the Pope era.
— Aaron Flener (@AaronFlener) March 20, 2026
BG and Mo were both AMAZING today! Cant win that game without them.
It’s easy to make claims like this after a win like the one the Cats miraculously pulled off on Friday. Here’s the thing, though: I don’t disagree with this. Consider how we probably would be feeling if the Cats lost this game.
Everything that went wrong for the Cats are all things we saw this team struggle with this season. If the Cats had ended up on the other side of this game, we’d probably be saying this game felt like an encapsulation of the entire season.
Then, imagine the state of the program coming off losing in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament for what would have been the third time in five years. No signings in the High School Class of 2026. A season with high expectations was completely wasted. That wouldn’t have been a good place to be in.
Oweh made sure that wouldn’t happen. With finality flashing before his eyes, and the eyes of the entire Cats’ team, Oweh heaved up a prayer, and it was answered. In a season that has seen a lot of breaks not go the Cats’ way, this time the Cats got the break. It could be the first of many in the NCAA Tournament for the Cats.
Now, the Cats have momentum, and they have belief. If there’s anything with this team, it’s that they’re going to battle for 40 minutes. That’s how they went 8-1 in the middle of SEC play, with two wins over Tennessee and a road win at Arkansas. It’s also how they overcame a really tough 5-4 start to beat Indiana and St. John’s in December. Not to mention, they’ve gone toe-to-toe three times with reigning national champion Florida.
The more battle-tested team won on Friday. Kentucky is now capable of using all of their experience overcoming adversity this season and channeling that into a deep run in this NCAA Tournament. Doing that would change the trajectory of the Mark Pope era. Recruits will see that deep runs are still a very prominent thing at Kentucky. Players in the transfer portal will also see it and consider more coming to play for Pope and the Cats.
Otega Oweh came to Kentucky in Pope’s first transfer portal class. He became the star player on Pope’s first team at Kentucky. When injuries hampered key players at the top of the roster, Oweh stepped up and carried the Cats to wins in the regular season, SEC Tournament, and NCAA Tournament. It got the Cats to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019.
This season, even with all of Collin Chandler’s clutch plays, it’s been Oweh that’s been the engine. Oweh had the game-winning bucket at Tennessee in January, and he had the game-winning assist to Chandler against Tennessee in Lexington back in February. It was Oweh who was consistently going for 20 points a night in the first half of SEC play, and he’s only had four games in his Kentucky career— spanning the past two seasons— where he hasn’t scored 10+ points. That’s 67 times in 71 games where Oweh has scored 10+ points.
With the injuries that Kentucky has dealt with over the last two seasons, combined with the growing pains and dropoff in terms of roster talent in Pope’s first two seasons, the Cats could have fallen far from the top of college basketball. Oweh not only kept the Cats afloat the past two seasons; he kept the ship steady, keeping the faith and belief that the Cats could still be one of the best teams in the country and contend for a national championship.
There has been a lot of drama this season surrounding the Cats. Bad losses, weird comments from Mark Pope in press conferences, and injuries. But Oweh was not to worry about. The Cats go as he goes, and if Friday is any indication, he may be starting a run reminiscent of Brandon Knight in 2011 and Aaron Harrison in 2014. We all know where those Cats’ teams went in the Big Dance.
This team is reminiscent of those teams, and a potential deep run this year will be traced back to when Oweh ignited it with his miraculous buzzer-beater when finality stared him and this Kentucky team straight in their eyes.
More importantly, Oweh may have changed the trajectory of the Mark Pope era with his season-saving shot, a shot that will long live in Kentucky and NCAA Tournament lore.