Mark Pope revealed Otega Oweh played through injury against Arkansas

Mark Pope says Kentucky Wildcat Otega Oweh played with an ankle injury on Saturday against Arkansas.

Jan 31, 2026; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Otega Oweh prior to a game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Bud Walton Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images | Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

The Kentucky Wildcats got their biggest win of the season on Saturday night in a road victory over the No. 15 Arkansas Razorbacks. In that win, though, one particular Wildcat was playing through an injury.

In his call-in radio show on Monday night, Mark Pope revealed that Kentucky star guard Otega Oweh played through an ankle injury in the win against Arkansas, even dealing with the injury in the days leading up to the big game. But, it does not sound like a problem moving forward to Wednesday's game with Oklahoma.

"He's actually coming off a little bit of an ankle injury so he didn't practice a whole lot two days leading up (to the Arkansas game),"Pope said on his radio show Monday. "We were a little cautious with him (Monday). He'll be full go (Tuesday)."

Jan 31, 2026; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks forward Trevon Brazile (7) and Kentucky Wildcats guard Otega Oweh (00) exchange words during the second half at Bud Walton Arena. Kentucky won 85-77. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images | Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

That injury, however minor it may seem to be, did not matter on Saturday, as Oweh ended with his best performance of the entire season for Kentucky. The veteran guard had a season-high 24 points on very efficient 9-12 shooting to go along with a team-high eight rebounds and three assists in 38 minutes of action on the court. Pope talked about his impressive performance, not only being a threat on offense, but playing great defense despite being matched up with one of the best freshmen in college basketball, Darius Acuff.

"You think about, he shot 75 percent from the field," Pope said on Monday of Oweh against Arkansas. "He had one of the toughest defensive assignments that you can have in college basketball today. 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 six to eight weeks, he's just been unbelievable."

Pope then was asked whether Oweh played a team-high 38 minutes because of the circumstances or was the decision already made going into the game. "If we went to overtime, we probably would have tried to play him 43 (minutes) he's playing so good. ...He was spectacular, nearly perfect. In our autopsy, we break down film on every aspect of the game. And he even had some, some hit-and-go gets that were just elite, where he was in a mismatch with one of their centers and and had a block-out where he was driving guys out of bounds and he just was really good. So we're going to play him as much as we can. ...He's, he's fearless on the court. He was really salty the whole game. He didn't get credited with any of the technical (fouls), but he might have been stirring the pot to try and get us there and he was really good."

WIth Oweh having been playing like the Preseason SEC Player of the Year over the last month, it feels like a no-brainer to continue giving him the star guard as many minutes as he can handle.