Otega Oweh needs to be more aggressive getting to the free throw line

It’s been a strange start to the 2025-26 season for Otega Oweh.

Oweh hasn’t been playing poorly by any means. The senior guard is averaging 13 points, 3.7 rebounds, and a career-high 2.3 assists per outing. His overall field goal percentage has dipped a bit, but he’s still shooting a career-best 53.1 percent on two-pointers. Mirroring last season, he’s reached double-digits in all seven games played for Kentucky so far this season.

But the Big Blue Nation would be lying if they said they didn’t expect a bit more out of the SEC Preseason Player of the Year and All-American candidate.

One of the main areas where Oweh hasn’t carried over his production from last season comes at the free-throw line. He’s shooting the ball quite well once he does get to the charity stripe (18-20 on the season; 90 percent), but the frequency has dipped. He averaged 5.3 free throw attempts per game last season, a number that has dropped to just 2.9 this season. Per KenPom, his free-throw rate has cratered from 46.3 percent last season to just 28.2 percent this season. He’s simply drawing far fewer fouls in 2025-26.

“I feel like I haven’t been getting to the line as much. That’s just me driving to the paint more,” Oweh said Monday. “I feel like I gotta get downhill, get to two feet more, and just force the issue. Force the refs to make some calls. My free throws been good, so I’ve just got to get there more.”

Comparing last season’s numbers to this season, Oweh actually is getting to the rim more often right now. Per CBB Analytics, he shot 63.5 percent at the rim last season, attempting 38.3 percent of his total field goals from that area. This season? He’s making 72.4 percent of his shots at the rim, while attempting 40.8 percent of his total field goal attempts from there. Those are good numbers.

But at the same time, we can attribute a decent portion of that high shooting percentage/volume to converting on his dunks and layups. He generates a chunk of his points in transition, which usually leads to easy looks. However, if we look at Oweh’s efficiency and frequency on shots in the paint that come just beyond the rim, it tells a different story — he’s leaving a ton of his preferred scoring opportunities out there on the floor.

• 2024-25 Paint 2s: 46.8 FG% | 29.9 FGA%
• 2025-26 Paint 2s: 33.3 FG% | 12.7 FGA%

Oweh is shooting worse on shots in the paint this season while taking significantly fewer attempts. He’s replaced some of those looks with more three-pointers, which hasn’t been a good trade so far (unless he’s shooting from the corners — Oweh is 5-9 on corner threes this season, per CBB Analytics, and was a solid 11-29 last season). But Kentucky’s overall spacing on the floor is tighter this season compared to last. Not having point guard Jaland Lowe set Oweh up for open driving lanes isn’t helping either.

“We’ve got a lot of new guys,” Oweh said. “It’s that chemistry piece in terms of playing our offense, and then on top of that, playing through the talent that we have. It’s definitely an adjustment that we’re gonna have to figure out. But we have so many different lineups. We have a downhill lineup, we have a defense lineup, we have a shooting lineup… Regardless who’s on the court, we have to find ways to be effective.”

Oweh just hasn’t seemed to find a consistent offensive rhythm through all of those different lineup combinations. Will that come with more games and playing time? That would be the hope, but the reality is he just needs to be more aggressive getting into the paint and putting pressure on the officials to call more fouls, much like he did last season. That’s his bread and butter and what made him an All-SEC player as a junior.

He can start by picking that up against North Carolina on Tuesday night.

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