UK NOTEBOOK: Oweh playing through 'a little bit of an ankle injury'

Otega Oweh will face his former team on Wednesday night and Kentucky coach Mark Pope wants to make sure his standout player is fully healthy against Oklahoma.

Oweh, who has scored double figures in all 22 games this season and scored 24 points in the Wildcats’ 85-77 win at Arkansas on Saturday night, has been dealing with “a little bit of an ankle injury.” He was limited in his practice for the contest against the Razorbacks and was full speed in practice on Monday.

“We were a little cautious with him today,” Pope said on his radio show Monday night. “He'll be full go tomorrow. But he put together an unbelievable performance."

Pope also praised Oweh’s defensive performance against Arkansas and standout point guard Darius Acuff, Jr. Oweh leads the Wildcats with 41 steals this season.

“He had one of the toughest defensive assignments that you can have in college basketball today,” Pope said. “He guarded an elite, elite-level player in Darius Acuff, doing it in a hostile place. He was absolutely terrific. He's been on a tear over the last 6-to-8 weeks. He's just been unbelievable.”

Oweh’s best performances at Kentucky have been against Oklahoma. He scored a career-high 28 points, including the last 18 and the game-winning basket with six seconds remaining to defeat the Sooners in Norman. Two weeks later, he scored 27 points against his former team and connected on another game-winning shot with 0.5 seconds remaining in a win over Oklahoma in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

Pope added that freshman Braydon Hawthorne sprained his ankle in practice on Monday. Pope said the possibility of Hawthorne playing this season remains in play.

“It's not off the table (because) the dynamics of our roster change every single day,” Pope said. “BH was actually terrific at practice today until he sprained his ankle. We'll see how that goes."

MAKING HISTORY?

Kentucky’s three technical fouls in 38 seconds in the second half at Arkansas may have set a school record, and Pope said the sequence could be considered a nationall record.

"I have some very high degree of confidence that that is the first time in the history of college basketball where a team has earned three technical fouls from two different players and a coach for three completely unrelated incidents in only 38 seconds,” he said. “Our efficiency is unbelievable.”

Overall, there were six technical fouls called in the contest, including one each on Brandon Garrison, Mo Dioubate and Pope in less than a minute in the second half.

RECRUITING TRAIL

Although focused on the present, Pope said the Wildcats are active on the recruiting trail and is confident his staff will build a solid roster for 2026-27.

“I’m excited about recruiting for next year,” the Kentucky coach said. “I think that we're in play with some players that fit us, that I think could be really, really special here, and we'll see how that goes.

“We're in the process of recruiting our own players and recruiting players that are still available. And then this portal can be really important for us, but I'm excited about where we are right now."

HEAVY TRAFFIC

Because of unusually heavy traffic in Lexington on Monday afternoon, Pope was late to his radio show but called in from his vehicle during the first segment.

“How great is technology? It's unbelievable. I love it,” Pope said. “I'm so grateful for it. So just the fact that we can do this radio show while I'm sitting there stuck in gridlock in Lexington, go figure.”

Pope later joined host Tom Leach in the studio.

GAMETRACKER: Oklahoma at Kentucky, 8 p.m.CT, Wednesday. TV/Radio: ESPN2, UK Radio Network on 94.7 The Mix and WiLLiE 102.