Oklahoma basketball: Sophomore guard Otega Oweh enters transfer portal
By Chip Rouse
Otega Oweh is the first of the Oklahoma basketball current roster to enter the transfer portal.
The Sooners finished the season with 20 wins, the first time they had done so since 2020-21, but they missed out on the NCAA Men's Tournament for the third straight year. Oklahoma would have been the No. 1 overall seed in the NIT Tournament, but the OU coaches and players elected to decline that opportunity.
As a result, the Oklahoma men's 2023-24 season, and final one as a member of the Big 12, abruptly and disappointingly ended on Selection Sunday.
The transfer portal has been a constant force in the makeup of the Sooner men's roster in the three years Porter Moser has been head coach. In each of his three seasons in Norman, Moser has had to replenish a large portion of the roster with incoming transfers because of players electing to leave the program via the portal.
The one positive thing that can be said about Oweh's decision to enter the portal is that he is the first to announce thus far. In the past two seasons, multiple Sooner players had indicated that intention at this point.
Oweh was recruited by Moser and has been at Oklahoma for two seasons. This past season, Oweh averaged 11.4 points per game, second best on the team, and shot 49.3 percent from the field. He started 28 of the Sooners' 32 games. Late in the season, Oweh lost his starting spot to Oregon transfer Rivaldo Soares, but Soares is out of eligibility after this season.
A native of Newark, New Jersey, Oweh scored 16 points in Oklahoma's final game this season, a seven-point loss to TCU in the second round of the Big 12 postseason tournament.