Mark Pope molded his first team at Kentucky with the intent of making it well-rounded offensively with the added threat of having shooters at nearly every position.
That kind of balance is fine and good for the regular season, but for the Wildcats to make noise starting in Nashville at the SEC Tournament, Otega Oweh needs to come up big.
This may not be factually accurate, but the phrase "go-to guy" was borne out of March Madness and more specifically the NCAA Tournament.
Oweh is the only player who fits that category right now for UK.
There will come a point in the postseason when the Cats need someone to carry the offense. When a team has them scouted so well and has the personnel to match making every point on every late-game possession feel like that could be the game-winner. Oweh has shown he's the guy who can get UK through, beyond just being the team's leading scorer.
Roll the Oklahoma footage.
Oweh went for a season-high 28 points -- including scoring the final 18 points for Kentucky over the last nine minutes of the game -- before making the go-ahead basket with 6.1 seconds left.
No other Cat has the offensive capacity for that kind of outburst. He just has to prove he can do it when he's not motivated by playing against his former team.
UK lost the potential for another player who could be that guy when guard Jaxson Robinson reinjured his wrist at Oklahoma and had to have season-ending surgery.
Certainly Pope trusts having the ball in the hands of Lamont Butler to make late-game decisions. Butler delivered the biggest shot in San Diego State's history when his game-winner against Florida Atlantic put the Aztecs in the 2023 national title game.
But Butler hasn't been fully healthy since January. Since coming back from a shoulder injury, he's shot 10 for 26 from the field -- including 1 of 6 from 3-point range -- and averaged 8.7 points per game.
Koby Brea, whose 44% 3-point shooting leads the SEC, always has the potential to go off for 20-plus points in any game. But he generally tends to take shots produced in the flow of the offense, not generate shots on his own.
In 11 games as a starter this season, Brea's average of 12.8 is just a basket more than what he's scored (10.3 points per game) while coming off the bench.
If a play breaks down, Brea isn't the guy you want to give the ball to and say go get a bucket.
In the seven games that Robinson missed, Oweh has welcomed more of the scoring responsibility -- with four games of scoring 20 or more. He had just seven 20-point games the rest of the season with Robinson in the lineup.
The downside of it is Oweh has also shown the burden of having to produce. In losses to Auburn and Alabama, he combined for six points, which marked his only two games as a Wildcat that he didn't reach double figures.
Those games are proving to be an aberration.
Oweh is the most athletic, most explosive player opponents have to defend, and in 1-on-1 situations, he's going to make his way to the rim or to the foul line. He's taken the most free throws for UK and ranks sixth in the SEC with 125 made free throws.
As much as Pope has built a team with the intent of not putting it all on one player, March is the time when every teams needs that one player who can help it survive and advance.