Otega Oweh declares for the NBA Draft while keeping his eligibility
Otega Oweh, the leading scorer on Mark Pope’s first Kentucky team this past season, is declaring for the 2025 NBA draft.
That doesn’t necessarily mean his UK basketball career is finished.
Oweh announced Tuesday evening that he has entered his name in the draft pool while keeping open his option to return to college for his senior year. If the 6-foot-4 guard does indeed pull out of the draft, he will play the 2025-26 season at Kentucky.
“To the best fans in the nation, the Big Blue Nation — getting to play the game I love each day, knowing I have your support alongside my family and friends, has truly been a dream come true, and I am incredibly blessed,” Oweh said in an Instagram post, before confirming that he had declared for the draft while maintaining his NCAA eligibility.
Though not among the most celebrated of Pope’s transfer portal additions last spring, Oweh emerged early on as the Wildcats’ most consistent offensive threat. He scored in double figures in each of the first 26 games of the season, and — four days after that streak ended with a two-point performance in a loss at Alabama — Oweh tallied a career-high 28 points in an epic showing at Oklahoma, scoring the final 18 points for UK in an 83-82 victory.
Oweh came to Kentucky known as a defense-first player, and — while he greatly expanded his scoring attack in Pope’s wide-open offense — he was indeed one of the team’s key stoppers, pairing with starting point guard Lamont Butler to form a 1-2 punch on the perimeter.
According to the most prominent NBA draft boards, Oweh will have to make up some ground over the next few months in order to hear his name called on draft night this year.
ESPN’s most recent list of the top 100 prospects for the 2025 draft has Oweh at No. 86 overall. The latest mock draft from The Athletic does not have Oweh listed as one of the 59 picks.
Oweh will have until 11:59 p.m. EDT on May 28 to make a final decision on his draft status. If he does return for one more season of college basketball, he will need to remove his name from the 2025 draft pool by that date.
The 2025 NBA draft is scheduled for June 25.
If Oweh does indeed return to Kentucky for next season, he will likely be in the running for preseason all-SEC honors after being selected as a second-team all-conference player in 2024-25.
He’d also go into next season projected to be one of the Wildcats’ top players once again, a sure starter on a revamped roster that has been ranked in the top 10 nationally on several preseason lists.
The Cats have added four highly touted transfers — point guard Jaland Lowe, wing Kam Williams, forward Mouhamed Dioubate and post player Jayden Quaintance — plus Croatian forward Andrija Jelavic as spring additions to play alongside star recruits Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno.
