Kentucky fans know greatness when they see it-and head coach Mark Pope has seen plenty of it, both then and now. As the captain of the legendary 1995-96 national championship team, Pope had a front-row seat to one of the most dominant squads in college basketball history. Now, nearly three decades later, he’s leading the Wildcats from the sidelines and seeing echoes of that golden era in a couple of his current players.
During his weekly radio show, Pope was asked a simple but intriguing question by a fan: Which player on this year’s team reminds you of someone from the ’95-96 championship team?
Without hesitation, Pope drew a connection between Otega Oweh-fresh off being named SEC Player of the Week-and former Wildcat great Antoine Walker. Now, Pope was quick to clarify: this isn’t a comparison of size or skillset.
Oweh is a 6-foot-4 guard; Walker was a 6-foot-8 forward who went on to become a three-time NBA All-Star. But what Pope sees is something deeper-something about how Oweh affects the game that reminds him of Walker’s presence and dependability.
“There’s something similar between Otega Oweh and Antoine Walker,” Pope told Tom Leach. “There’s just something similar in terms of their impact on the game and their reliability, especially as Antoine got a little bit older… It’s more of some type of feel of impact on the game than it is specific, but there’s some similarity there.”
That kind of impact-the ability to shift the momentum, to be counted on when it matters most-isn’t easy to quantify. But coaches and players know it when they see it. And Pope sees it in Oweh.
But he didn’t stop there. Pope offered another throwback comparison, this time linking sophomore guard Collin Chandler to Jeff Sheppard, one of the most clutch players in Kentucky history.
Pope shared a story from the 1995-96 season, when the Wildcats were still figuring out their point guard rotation. In a tight road game at Arkansas, Sheppard-then a sophomore-took matters into his own hands in the final seconds, ignoring a drawn-up play to attack the basket.
The shot didn’t fall, and Kentucky lost. But what happened afterward in the locker room stuck with Pope.
“Coach Pitino was tearing into everybody,” Pope recalled. “Then he got to Shep and said, ‘If you ever turn down a play call again, you’ll walk all the way back to Peachtree, Georgia, and you’ll never wear this jersey again… And I love the fact that you had the courage to do it.’”
That blend of discipline and encouragement helped shape Sheppard, who went on to become the Most Outstanding Player of the 1998 NCAA Tournament, leading Kentucky to another national title with 27 points in the semifinal and 16 more in the championship game.
Chandler, Pope says, already has that same fearless gene. He’s not waiting for permission to take the big shot-he’s built for the moment.
“There’s something about this Collin Chandler that is like, let me go,” Pope said. “Let me go take the moment. Let me go do it.”
And Chandler has been doing exactly that. In Kentucky’s recent win over Tennessee, he buried the go-ahead three with 33 seconds left.
Against LSU, he launched a full-court pass to Malachi Moreno for a buzzer-beating game-winner. He’s been a late-game hero time and again-grabbing a crucial steal against Tennessee, scoring 14 second-half points to help beat Texas, and hitting clutch shots to seal wins over Ole Miss and Arkansas.
It’s one thing to draw comparisons to championship legends like Walker and Sheppard. It’s another to live up to them. But Oweh and Chandler are writing their own stories in real time-and if they keep this up, they just might add a new chapter to Kentucky’s rich championship history.