Kentucky’s veterans preaching urgency in NCAA Tournament

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Kentucky’s season is on the line this weekend, and that’s especially true for Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen, who could be playing in their final college game on Friday. That’s not lost on the seniors, who have been imparting wisdom on their younger teammates ahead of Kentucky’s first-round game vs. Santa Clara.

“Have fun and embrace the moment,” Denzel Aberdeen, who won a national championship with Florida last season, said on Thursday. “It’s something everyone wants to be a part of. Something you dream of as a kid. So take it in, have fun, and play hard whenever your name is called. Really embrace the moment.”

“I would say the message is the sense of urgency has to be at an all-time high,” Otega Oweh said. “It is win or go home. So the details and the urgency we have to have are going to be on another level. In these types of situations, you are getting every team’s best.”

Kentucky hasn’t always had that this season. The Cats’ inconsistency may be their identity at this point, but Oweh, the most consistent player on this squad, knows how important it is for Kentucky to shake those bad habits before it’s too late.

“No one is trying to go home. We have to come out there and have the utmost energy and be really sharp. We don’t want to finish the game and say, oh, we should have done this or should have done that. So, the urgency has to be super sharp.”

Mo Dioubate, who went to a Final Four in his first season at Alabama and an Elite Eight in his second, echoed those sentiments.

“Take advantage of this moment right here, because it could go away in a second; you’ve got to play every moment like it’s your last,” he told reporters in the locker room.

“There are only 64 teams that make it out of [361] teams in the country. I have a lot of friends who have been in college for a few years. They never played in March, so just play every moment like you never come back here, because you never know.”

Kentucky’s rookies are listening, especially Malachi Moreno, who is determined to do special things for his homestate program, even as a freshman.

“I’ve gone to all of them, kind of just saying, how do you handle the nerves and the pressure?” Malachi Moreno said. “And they’re just like, we deal with pressure every day, but you just have to come in and do what you do just to be the best version of yourself and just to do whatever’s asked of you.”

For Oweh and Aberdeen, that’s everything. Two-thirds of Kentucky’s three-headed GOAT, the senior guards know they must be playing at their best for the Cats to advance.

“Knowing every game could be the last one, want to go out there and have no regrets, leave it all on the table — on the floor, I mean,” Oweh said. “We just want to go as far as we can. Prolong this run we are trying to go on and have fun in the moment as well, because this is the last time we are going to be able to do this.

“Like he said, knowing it is our last run, trying to make the best of it,” Aberdeen added. “Trying to go all of the way. Playing for our teammates, playing for our brothers, every single one of us knows our dream and goal, know what we want to do. We have to go on and strive for it.”