'Welcome back, my friend.' The Otega Oweh that Kentucky needs has arrived.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Seventy hours.

Give or take a few minutes, that’s how long the Kentucky Wildcats had to wait for another shot at outside competition after they walked off the Madison Square Garden court Tuesday night, the scoreboard above them telling the tale of the embarrassment they had just endured.

How eager was Otega Oweh — the team’s top player — to get a basketball back in his hands and play against somebody else?

“Super eager,” he said after UK’s 88-46 thrashing of Loyola (Maryland) on Friday night.

How personally had he taken the 83-66 loss to Michigan State three nights earlier?

“Super personal,” he replied.

Sure looked like it.

After Malachi Moreno — making his first college start — won the opening tip, the Wildcats got to work. Kam Williams — also making his first start as a UK player — had the ball at the top of the key on the first possession of the game, and Oweh cut around a screen and went straight to the basket for the first two points of the night.

Next possession, he did it all on his own, taking his man off the dribble from the wing and gliding in for an easy layup.

On the other end of the court, he applied enough defensive pressure to force a Loyola turnover. The ball went out of bounds. Oweh immediately signaled that it belonged to the Cats.

On the ensuing possession, Oweh caught the ball in the corner and rocketed a two-handed pass to Moreno for another easy bucket. Next trip down, he drove the middle, threw a violent shoulder into his defender and connected on a mid-range jumper, backpedalling down the court on defense before the ball fell through the net.

A minute later, he outjumped the 7-foot Moreno for a defensive rebound. The Cats scored on the other end. A couple of minutes after that, Oweh came up with another steal, and Collin Chandler finished that play with a 3-pointer in transition.

Kentucky 20, Loyola 8.

This one was as good as finished. The whistle hadn’t even sounded for the first TV timeout.

Where had this guy been for the past two weeks? This was the Oweh that Kentucky fans had grown accustomed to seeing last season, the guy who often had his way on the Rupp Arena court. So often this season, Oweh hadn’t looked like that guy.

Three nights earlier in Madison Square Garden, no one in blue and white had looked like they belonged. And that had been eating at these Wildcats ever since.

“I think we all take it really personally,” UK coach Mark Pope said Friday night. “How can you not? Like, that’s what this is. You know, it’s the greatest thing in the world. It’s mano a mano. There’s nowhere to hide. One of the great things about our job, it doesn’t actually matter what anyone says, because there’s just the truth of the scoreboard. It’s just the reality for all of us. So I think he took it personally. I think our whole team takes it personally. And we know we’re not in a great spot right now. We have to get better.”

On Friday night, the Cats took a small step in that direction. And who better than Oweh to get them started.

Kentucky’s leading scorer from last season — and the SEC preseason player of the year for this one — tallied six points, two steals, a rebound and an assist before the first TV timeout. He started the first game of the rest of Kentucky’s season like a man possessed.

That’s not what impressed his coach the most.

The Cats did basically whatever they wanted offensively in the first half. They led 50-20 at the break. But they struggled to start the second — didn’t score for the first three minutes, in fact — and Oweh was right in the thick of it. He committed two turnovers and missed a shot in the first two minutes of the half. And then he offered another reminder of what he can do.

Oweh picked the pocket of Loyola’s best player — first-team All-Patriot League guard Jacob Theodosiou — and left him in the dust as he sprinted the other way for a dunk.

That’s what Pope remembered most after this 42-point victory.

“I felt like his first stretch in the second half wasn’t quite as solid offensively. But we saw a couple possessions of Otega Oweh defense that we haven’t seen. The passion and commitment defensively — that’s where he’s going to build his game,” Pope said. “So I felt like, ‘Welcome back, my friend.’ Like, ‘Let’s go with that. Where you just refuse to let anybody get by you, and you don’t need any help on a ball screen, or a stag, or anything else, because you’re just so physical dealing with it. That guy is our guy.

“And him finding that a little bit — maybe for the first time this season — meant a lot to me.”

Chandler and Williams followed up that sequence with dunks of their own, and the rout was back on.

Oweh actually ended up with his lowest-scoring game of the season. Just 11 points, to go along with five rebounds, two assists and three steals in 24 minutes. But he looked different in this one. For perhaps the first time all season, he looked like himself.

In year one at Kentucky, he was surrounded by veteran players — seniors like Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr, Koby Brea, Jaxson Robinson and Amari Williams — guys who proved to be experts at spacing the floor and giving their most explosive teammate room to operate.

Year two has been different. The Cats have struggled to make shots. The lane has often been clogged. Oweh hasn’t had the same kind of space to do what he does best. And keeping it that way has been the top priority of the teams Kentucky has played.

“Their game plan has been, ‘If O gets the ball, when he gets in the paint, everyone turn around. Who cares who you’re guarding. Go to Otega.’ Right?” Chandler said. “And they did a little bit of that today. But he was so good at getting to the paint and finding guys, which I think — once we started hitting 3s — opened it up for him. …

“There’s only so much you can do to stop a guy like Otega getting into the hoop. And I think once we start spacing the floor, hitting shots, it helps him a lot.”

On Friday night, a UK team that had shot 31.9% from 3-point range over its first five games was 8 for 14 from deep in the first half. The result was an Oweh who could play more to his strengths, in every aspect of the game.

“One of my favorite plays in the first half was when Otega got downhill really hard and got to the baseline on the left — like right underneath the left block — and came to two feet, and pivoted and pivoted, and threw a brilliant hook pass to Collin in the opposite corner,” Pope said. “The fact that he saw it, the fact that he was disciplined enough to get to two feet, the fact that he was playing with huge force and aggressiveness to earn a great shot for his teammate is part of us that has been missing.”

Sure, Loyola isn’t very good. The Greyhounds came into the night at No. 292 in the KenPom ratings. And no, this result won’t do a whole lot to calm fans who flipped their lid over the losses to Louisville and Michigan State — the only marquee opponents the Cats have faced so far.

But Kentucky, as a team, looked different Friday night. More cohesive, for sure, even compared to the three beatdowns of Nicholls, Valparaiso and Eastern Illinois earlier this season. And the Wildcats’ best player finally looked like the version of himself from last season.

That’s the Oweh these Cats need on a regular basis.

UK gets one more cupcake — Tennessee Tech on Wednesday night in Rupp — before the going gets tough again. It’ll be North Carolina on Dec. 2. And then Gonzaga three nights later.

This Wildcats’ team isn’t close to being fixed — “We have to get better,” Pope reiterated Friday night — but they learned a lesson earlier this week in New York. And, if their best player is any indication, perhaps they came out of that trip pointed in the right direction.

“I feel like adversity always brings teams together,” Oweh said. “You know, when things are going well, it’s easy to be happy, easy to be joyful. But when the s--- hits the fan, you have to turn into your brothers and really lean in. …

“I know we’re all just itching for that next big game — to go out there and improve and do better.”

____