KSR Today: Otega Oweh is BACK, SEC spring meetings, and SGA in the NBA Finals

Good morning, folks! Otega Oweh announced his return to Kentucky for a senior season on Wednesday. Take a big exhale, BBN — Mark Pope has his guy back to round out one of the deepest rosters in all of college basketball going into 2025-26.

Oweh took his decision up to the deadline, announcing the news through social media several hours before the 11:59 p.m. ET cutoff. The 6-foot-5 All-SEC guard spent the last couple of months going through the NBA Draft process, always leaving open the possibility of a return to Kentucky. But it’s hard not to notice that, in Oweh’s announcement video, he still has a full head of hair, which he shaved off over a month ago.

While he might have been all-in on beginning his professional career, his heart was always with Kentucky.

“I got great feedback from NBA teams, but the consensus was to come back to school and have a great year,” Oweh told ESPN. “I want to try and up my stock even more, and put myself in a position to win a national championship with all the possible accolades that come with that.”

With Oweh officially in the fold, Kentucky’s 2025-26 roster is locked in at 14 players. Preseason top 10 rankings will accompany the Wildcats once we inch closer to the fall. Oweh will be a likely All-American candidate and among the top few choices for Preseason SEC Player of the Year. It’s tough to overstate just how important it is for Pope and Co. to have him back in the mix.

"Let's run it back. I'm staying home." – @OtegaOweh pic.twitter.com/3KtsirlOuf

— KSR (@KSRonX) May 28, 2025

Shortly after the announcement, Jack Pilgrim and I went live on Sources Say to break down our thoughts on what a second year in Lexington might look like for Oweh. We rambled on about the ‘Cats for over an hour, so if you need something to fill your day up, consider this to be a way-too-early season preview.

Dive in below for plenty of Kentucky basketball talk — and stick around for Jack slowly losing his mind near the very end.

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SEC spring meetings wrap up today

SEC spring meetings in Destin, FL, began on Tuesday and wrap up today. So far, there has been plenty of talk surrounding the transfer portal, the SEC’s apparent issue with the current College Football Playoff committee, and, of course, the pending House v. NCAA settlement. Important decisions are coming sooner rather than later.

UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart has also been down in the Sunshine State — along with Mark Pope, Mark Stoops, and Kenny Brooks, among others — to join the conversation surrounding the current state of college athletics. With many league decisions expected to happen fast, Barnhart is asking to keep the eyes on the prize.

“It’s so easy to look at decisions in silos or one-offs,” Barnhart told Paul Finebaum on Wednesday evening in Destin.” I think that one of the things that will be important — at least from our lens at Kentucky and I hope our lens as a conference — is we look at these things in the total.

“Is the decision-making around the CFP? Is the decision-making around football scheduling? Those things are all very interrelated, in my mind. For us at Kentucky, they’re very interrelated. I want to make sure that we know what’s most important. Our finances are part of that conversation. Our fan base is a part of that conversation. Keeping hope alive for our programs is really, really important. Opportunity is important for our kids. I think those things are all interrelated. I think as a group of leaders, we’ve gotta make sure that we’re thinking about them together.”

Mitch Barnhart gives insight into hiring the coaches to lead @UKAthletics Men's & Women's hoops teams into the future #BBN pic.twitter.com/dZF0RuSaIN

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) May 28, 2025

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is going to the NBA Finals

Looking back on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s brief college career, it’s a bit wild to see him leading the Oklahoma City Thunder into the NBA Finals as the league MVP. But that’s the reality we live in — and it’s been so much damn fun to watch. Behind another dominant performance from SGA on Wednesday night, OKC knocked off Julius Randle and the Minnesota Timberwolves, 124-94, to win the Western Conference Finals 4-1.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander so far this season:

– MVP
– 1st Team All-NBA
– WCF MVP
– Scoring Title
– All-Star

One of the greatest guard seasons in NBA history and it isn’t finished yet. pic.twitter.com/vzVjubTJ7l

— Joel Moran (@joelvmoran) May 29, 2025

Gilgeous-Alexander went for a cool 34 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds in a game that was over six minutes into the action. His Kentucky teammate, second-year guard Cason Wallace, has been wildly impressive these playoffs in his own right, too. Those two will await the winner of Knicks-Pacers to find out their NBA Finals opponent. Karl-Anthony Towns and the Knicks will try to avoid elimination tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET on TNT.

This is OKC’s first Finals appearance since Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden were rocking Thunder jerseys back in 2012.

Bat Cats begin NCAAT run on Friday

We’re a little over 24 hours away from Kentucky baseball’s quest to reach a second consecutive College World Series. It’s going to be a tougher road in 2025 than it was in 2024, but Nick Mingione has done better than expected after hefty roster turnover in the offseason. The Bat Cats begin their NCAA Tournament run on Friday at noon ET on ESPNU against West Virginia in the Clemson Regional.

A win on Friday would push Kentucky into the winner’s bracket on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. ET. A loss moves them into the loser’s bracket with the next game set for Saturday at noon ET. With this being a double-elimination, four-team group, UK will have a handful of shots at escaping the region. KSR/On3’s Daniel Hager will be on the scene to bring you all of the action.

It’s almost time to cheer on another deep postseason run for the ‘Cats.

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Kentucky football OV season is about to kick off

This coming weekend marks the first of several important recruiting weekends for Kentucky football. Still sitting on one class of 2026 commit (four-star OT Jarvis Strickland out of Paducah), the coaching staff has some ground to make up.

Strickland will be among the official visitors in Lexington this weekend, as will the likes of four-star WR Roderick Tezeno, four-star WR Justin Williams, three-star OT Charlie Edgeworth, three-star OT Cameron Miller, and four-star EDGE Jackson Ford. For more information on what to expect out of this weekend (commitment watch, anyone???), jump into the latest episode of 11 Personnel with Adam Luckett and Nick Roush.

Breeders’ Cup returning to Keeneland

Keeneland was once thought to be an unsuitable host for the Breeders’ Cup. Now, the World Championships can’t get enough of the Central Kentucky race track.

This fall’s Breeders’ Cup will head near San Diego at Del Mar. On Wednesday, they announced the Horse Racing World Championships will return to Keeneland in 2026, followed by Belmont Park in 2027. It will be one of the first major events at the NYRA track after undergoing multi-year, $500 million renovations. The last time the Breeders’ Cup came to Lexington in 2022, almost 46,000 people were in the stands to see Flightline complete his undefeated career.