Gosh I hope Oweh Comes Back

Eagles_Ball_69

All-Conference
Dec 19, 2003
2,909
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And was our most dependable player and possible our leading scorer ( I don’t want to look it up). If you can’t trade up then obviously you are trading down. As of now I don’t see anyone coming in that usurps him. If he returns he will be the centerpiece of the team next year.

It’s almost like you guys think we can sprinkle pixie dust and elite talent will just show up out of nowhere. We can’t automatically expect that. Cal gave us that but he’s no longer here. As a fanbase we have to adjust.

OO is the most important recruit on the board for pope.
If OO is the best player on the team next year, Pope isn’t going to enjoy the same feelings next year. He isn’t good enough to be your best player if you wanna be a great team.
 

Eagles_Ball_69

All-Conference
Dec 19, 2003
2,909
3,751
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Elite talent is one and done.
No thanks.
That ship has hopefully sailed forever.
Building a cohesive team sounds better to me.
The amount of one year players here over the last several years that I can actually remember is small.
That is not fun.
Show me the teams left that don’t have elite talent. You saying you don’t want elite talent is akin to saying I’m cool with my team just being “mid”. I’m not cool with that for UK. And you shouldn’t be either. Just like many things in life, it takes all types to build a great team. One of those things is some elite level talent.
 

Rockfly78

Heisman
Nov 20, 2014
7,931
10,882
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Elite talent is one and done.
No thanks.
That ship has hopefully sailed forever.
Building a cohesive team sounds better to me.
The amount of one year players here over the last several years that I can actually remember is small.
That is not fun.
Who says elite talent is one and done? If I wanted to reference one and dones then I would have used those words.

Also who says you can’t build a cohesive team with elite talent? Pope himself says he wants to build his rosters with a mix of elite talent and also older portal kids. Do you not agree with him?

Pope pursues these high level guys hard. This is a fact. You guys are just doing mental gymnastics after we don’t land them in order to make yourselves feel better. He wants them. But when he doesn’t get them the fans claim we didn’t need them. If that’s the case then pope is wasting a lot of time and resources
 
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CapnBlubs

All-Conference
Jun 30, 2008
1,709
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He sure finished two tough *** layups to beat Oklahoma.
Yeah I honestly thought Oweh was a solid enough finisher overall this year when he got close enough. It was Williams who was absolutely terrible at that all the time, stopping short for awkward push shots off the back of the rim.
 

Rockfly78

Heisman
Nov 20, 2014
7,931
10,882
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If OO is the best player on the team next year, Pope isn’t going to enjoy the same feelings next year. He isn’t good enough to be your best player if you wanna be a great team.
We will have to disagree. He was the leading scorer on a team that set records this year and went to a S16 despite injuries. He will be our bell cow next year. At least until we start landing better kids
 

BlueBloodKyFan73

All-Conference
Oct 29, 2010
3,196
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The only ones eligible to return are Oweh, the three freshman and Garrison.

Two of the freshman can’t play at this level and look to be already recruited over. Oweh I think you might as well flip a coin at this point imho. Garrison probably will chase some money if the market gets insane.
Krisa has a fifth year
 

Cleatortoises

Heisman
Dec 24, 2018
2,977
10,468
113
Show me the teams left that don’t have elite talent. You saying you don’t want elite talent is akin to saying I’m cool with my team just being “mid”. I’m not cool with that for UK. And you shouldn’t be either. Just like many things in life, it takes all types to build a great team. One of those things is some elite level talent.
Here is what I mean;
Is Boogie Fland elite talent?
Is Mark sears?
They are not the same.
I want players who become great college players.
I do not want guys dropping by for a year.
GBB!
 

BigKari

All-American
Apr 15, 2014
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I’d love to get a look at these nerds who comment “Oweh isn’t good at finishing at the rim”. It’s literally the thing that he’s best at, easily top 5 at the rim finisher in college basketball this season. If you disagree, you have to name 5 who were better and provide evidence.
 

L.O.D.

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Feb 4, 2024
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Where's he going to go? He put his name on map this year an hes not getting drafted in 1st . I guess he could go a euro or China route for money ........
 

BigKari

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Apr 15, 2014
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Where's he going to go? He put his name on map this year an hes not getting drafted in 1st . I guess he could go a euro or China route for money ........
That’d be a pretty significant pay decrease compared to what he could get from NIL. Overseas rookies get paid peanuts, that’s if the check clears at all.
 
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SemperFiCat

Heisman
Mar 2, 2009
14,566
30,005
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A desperate team will probably pay him more than Kentucky may be willing to. Will come down to how much he wants. I wouldn't break the bank for him. Nice player though.
 

PoBilly

All-Conference
Mar 18, 2012
2,784
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C’mon back 00
If the reports online are true, he told Auburn and Louisville no to more NIL money than UK is offering. He told them both Kentucky is his home. If that is true he will be back. He can do draft to test waters but will not be a first round guy. He needs to work on a few other parts to his game.
 
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Eagles_Ball_69

All-Conference
Dec 19, 2003
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We will have to disagree. He was the leading scorer on a team that set records this year and went to a S16 despite injuries. He will be our bell cow next year. At least until we start landing better kids
That’s the point. They got to the S16. Got their doors blown off. And lost 11 games on the season. You need Otega Owehs. But he isn’t the best player on a championship level team.
 

Eagles_Ball_69

All-Conference
Dec 19, 2003
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Here is what I mean;
Is Boogie Fland elite talent?
Is Mark sears?
They are not the same.
I want players who become great college players.
I do not want guys dropping by for a year.
GBB!
You need both. A team built like this one will have Pope out of a job in 3-5 yrs. And FTR, I think he did a really really good job building this team and coaching it.
 
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Rockfly78

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Nov 20, 2014
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That’s the point. They got to the S16. Got their doors blown off. And lost 11 games on the season. You need Otega Owehs. But he isn’t the best player on a championship level team.
We are not a luxury to just let a kid like him walk. Look at our roster. Who will be better? We have swung and missed on every single stud we have recruited. I’d love for OO to be complimentary piece. But that’s not the world we live in. We can’t afford to lose him.
 
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LadyCaytIL

Heisman
Oct 28, 2012
32,262
33,267
113
Oweh is coming back, why would you guys be worried ? He's not even a 2nd round pick.
 

NociHTTP

Heisman
Mar 8, 2023
11,073
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Where's he going to go? He put his name on map this year an hes not getting drafted in 1st . I guess he could go a euro or China route for money ........
Most here seem excited about the prospects of OO coming back because he was the only one who could get to the rim, embrace the contact, and finish. Even so, he does nothing very well. Terrible passer at times, often out of control with the ball, doesn't do much to help teammates, hitch in shot. Don't see him getting drafted.
 

Panthur

Heisman
Aug 5, 2008
9,225
12,780
0
The Tennessee defense wasn't that great, lol. We just didn't run more than Amari and BG taking turns out on top handing the ball off. Very few screens were set. Rebounding effort was for the most part, awful. The team was, once again, not prepared for the game. We could have won this game.
This is what freaked me out more than anything last night. Why didn’t we dance with the one that brought us? I counted like four possessions we actually ran our zoom action at all last night.

Could have been some I missed; I was distracted by watching us getting our head caved in. But I don’t think I missed too much. I saw all kinds of single man elbow cuts with no screener, desperation running around the perimeter with people who aren’t shot creators trying to create their own shots while under heavy coverage and sometimes double coverage, some high/low action, some back door cuts, some dump offs like you said both from and to our bigs, a fair amount of Butler and Oweh driving one on five more or less. In other words, a few mini plays, but mostly street ball against the second-rated defense in the nation. What was our game plan??
 
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NociHTTP

Heisman
Mar 8, 2023
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This is what freaked me out more than anything last night. Why didn’t we dance with the one that brought us? I counted like four possessions we actually ran our zoom action at all last night.

Could have been some I missed; I was distracted by watching us getting our head caved in. But I don’t think I missed too much. I saw all kinds of single man elbow cuts with no screener, desperation running around the perimeter with people who aren’t shot creators trying to create their own shots while under heavy coverage and sometimes double coverage, some high/low action, some back door cuts, some dump offs like you said both from and to our bigs, a fairly amount of Butler and Oweh driving one on five more or less. In other words, a few mini plays, but mostly street ball against the second-rated defense in the nation. What was our game plan??
One of my concerns with Pope is his offense. Before the season started we heard about one of the guys on his staff who is an offensive savant. Supposedly we'd be running all sorts of action. I watched video of BYU and was surprised at all the ball movement. What happened to that being here at UK? If my memory serves me correctly, even in Pitino's early days here at UK, there was more ball movement. Were we THAT SLOW and WEAK that we couldn't even do the basics? It seemed early in the season there was a lot more ball movement, by season end that seemed to stop, with only occasional moments of that. Pope quite often went away from the hot players in games, what was working, and I'm wondering if he did the same thing with the offense (or relying on his staff).
 

Panthur

Heisman
Aug 5, 2008
9,225
12,780
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One of my concerns with Pope is his offense. Before the season started we heard about one of the guys on his staff who is an offensive savant. Supposedly we'd be running all sorts of action. I watched video of BYU and was surprised at all the ball movement. What happened to that being here at UK? If my memory serves me correctly, even in Pitino's early days here at UK, there was more ball movement. Were we THAT SLOW and WEAK that we couldn't even do the basics? It seemed early in the season there was a lot more ball movement, by season end that seemed to stop, with only occasional moments of that. Pope quite often went away from the hot players in games, what was working, and I'm wondering if he did the same thing with the offense (or relying on his staff).
Yeah. I know there was definitely some wilting as a result of injuries. The rest of it feels like a gray area with Pope definitely being smarter than me Plus Kenpom always rated our offensive efficiency at least fairly high on one hand, and on the other hand I saw the same thing you saw. Here’s hoping Pope saw it too because he’s at least an innovator and as long as he makes some conscious effort to address it I’m optimistic about where that could lead.
 

Eagles_Ball_69

All-Conference
Dec 19, 2003
2,909
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We are not a luxury to just let a kid like him walk. Look at our roster. Who will be better? We have swung and missed on every single stud we have recruited. I’d love for OO to be complimentary piece. But that’s not the world we live in. We can’t afford to lose him.
Please realize there’s a landing spot between him being a teams best player and him no longer being on the team. I said in another post in this thread that we need an Otega Oweh. He just can’t be the best player on a championship team. That doesn’t mean I don’t want him. I definitely DO want him. But we need a couple dudes better than him to be championship good.
 

Eagles_Ball_69

All-Conference
Dec 19, 2003
2,909
3,751
82
One of my concerns with Pope is his offense. Before the season started we heard about one of the guys on his staff who is an offensive savant. Supposedly we'd be running all sorts of action. I watched video of BYU and was surprised at all the ball movement. What happened to that being here at UK? If my memory serves me correctly, even in Pitino's early days here at UK, there was more ball movement. Were we THAT SLOW and WEAK that we couldn't even do the basics? It seemed early in the season there was a lot more ball movement, by season end that seemed to stop, with only occasional moments of that. Pope quite often went away from the hot players in games, what was working, and I'm wondering if he did the same thing with the offense (or relying on his staff).
We were 10th on Pomroy in offensive efficiency. That means we were really good, no matter what your eye test told you.
 

kyhoward

All-Conference
Feb 3, 2018
861
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I spoke with Otega’s parents in Milwaukee after the Illinois game. They said he loved Lexington, UK, and the coaching staff. Their eyes lit up when I asked them about CMP.

I asked if he was returning and did not get a definitive yes, but their demeanor suggested that he was coming back. I may be wrong, of course.
 
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