Otega Oweh grabbed the microphone after Kentucky's 85-77 win over Arkansas and skipped the media training playbook entirely. He exhaled. He survived. And he had a message for everyone who'd written this team's eulogy 72 hours earlier.
"Shout out to us for getting that dub."
Lexington had just watched a 25-point demolition by Vanderbilt, and the discourse turned ugly fast. Not the usual "bad defense" or "poor shooting" complaints. This went somewhere darker.
Pull up any timeline after that Vandy loss. Zero chemistry. Disconnected. They look like they've never played together. Some said it looked almost like they don't like each other. Others called them robotic. The takes came hard and fast: this roster of portal additions was a failed experiment, strangers who couldn't trust each other enough to pass the ball, let alone survive a road game in the SEC.
Mark Pope's team walked into Bud Walton Arena Saturday night, beat the #15 Arkansas Razorbacks, and lit that whole narrative on fire.
Turns out they like each other just fine
If this team had given up on each other, nobody told them.
Bud Walton Arena doesn't forgive. Nineteen thousand fans screaming at you, and John Calipari's entire coaching staff, who were in Lexington just 2 years ago. Most teams break there. Kentucky welded together instead.
Saturday in Fayetteville answered every question about their fight. Six technical fouls in that game. Kentucky picked up four. Most seasons, that's a team imploding. This time it's evidence of life.
"I'd like us to have just a tiny bit more discipline," Mark Pope said after. "But what I love about that stretch is the guys' fight and determination... I wouldn't trade the heart of it for anything."
Nobody gets into a shoving match for a teammate they don't trust. In fact, that "bad body language" everyone complained about has been replaced with defiance. Now it just has to be consistent.
Trent Noah shushes 19,000
Trent Noah made himself the perfect example. This sophomore walks into one of college basketball's loudest arenas and decides to talk back. The boos came, but he shushed them with 9 points and 7 rebounds.
Pope said Noah looked like he "thought the rims literally were like seven feet wide" during shootaround.
Confidence like that is infectious, but it only flourishes with the solid support of your four teammates.
Kentucky needed it. They'd trailed at halftime in 12 of their last 14 high-major games. Not this time. The Cats hit 10 of their first 11 shots. They led 42-35 at the break and looked ready to play from the opening tip.
This win doesn't cancel the bad losses, but it answers something about this team. Does this team have the fight needed to be a good team?
Otega Oweh played 38 exhausting minutes and dropped 24 points with 8 rebounds. Malachi Moreno grabbed 7 boards, scored 11, buried critical free throws late.
The team held together while everyone said they were falling apart.
"Heap on the hate and the heat," Mark Pope said about the criticism. "These guys keep answering the bell."
For a week, the story ran that Kentucky was broken, soft, disconnected. They walked off the floor in Fayetteville bruised but victorious. Turns out the only people who needed to believe in this team were already wearing the jerseys.
Shout out to them.