Hot Off the Press: Oscar Tshiebwe is AP Player of the Year
NEW ORLEANS –Kentucky men’s basketball forward Oscar Tshiebwe was awarded the Associated Press Player of the Year honor during a presentation inside the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Friday.
Tshiebwe is the second UK player to be named the AP’s top performer joining Anthony Davis (2012). He is the fourth player from the Southeastern Conference to earn the nod joining Davis and LSU’s Shaquille O’Neal (1991) and Pete Maravich (1970). The AP began awarding a national player of the year accolade in 1961. He’s the third player coached by John Calipari to earn the accolade joining Davis and UMass’ Marcus Camby (1996).
This marks the third NCAA-recognized electors for national player of the year honor that Tshiebwe has been awarded. He was also picked as the nation’s top performer by The Sporting News and the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
“Thank you. First of all, I would like to thank God, because I feel like you cannot get without him,” said Tshiebwe. “If I did not trust God and let him lead me in everything I do. And second, I would love to thank my coaches and everybody on the staff for always believing in me and always work with me through the process. My teammates, I thank my teammates for everything, too, because I could not do it on my own. I needed somebody like my teammates to encourage, to be with me in everything we’ve done together.
“And I’m very grateful to be here. And I thank the organization for choosing me as player of the year,” Tshiebwe said. “I’m very thankful for them too. And I’m very happy to be here. Very happy, and I’m very excited. This is one of the things, like, it is everybody’s dream to receive that trophy right there. But I’m sitting right here receiving that trophy. That makes me feel very happy and I’m really grateful for everything. Thank you.”
Tshiebwe not only averaged a double-double but did so with a considerable margin — averaging a team-best 17.4 points and a nation-leading 15.1 rebounds per game. He is the first Division I player who averaged at least 15.0 points and at least 15.0 rebounds per game since Drake’s Lewis Lloyd and Alcorn State’s Larry Smith each did during the 1979-80 season, and the first major-conference player who averaged at least 16.0 points and at least 15.0 rebounds for a season since Bill Walton at UCLA in 1972-73. He became the first Wildcat to do it since Bob Burrow tallied 19.1 points and 17.7 rebounds per game in 1954-55.
In addition to his offensive and rebounding prowess, on the defensive end Tshiebwe was the only major conference player who averaged at least 1.6 blocked shots and 1.6 steals per game during the regular season. He also became only the third player in program history to amass at least 500 rebounds in a season. Tshiebwe finished the year with 515 boards.
A unanimous first-team All-American, Tshiebwe corralled at least 10 boards in all but two games this season and finished the season with 21 straight games with double-digit rebounds. That’s a record for the Wildcats dating back to the 1967-68 season with complete game-by-game rebounding records. Dan Issel had two stretches of 12 such games. It’s also the longest stretch by any SEC player since at least 1996- 97. It’s also the longest streak in one season by any Division I player since Rokas Gustys of Hofstra had 23 straight in 2016.
Tshiebwe was elite on the glass from the very beginning of the season. He set new records for the Champions Classic and UK debut with 20 boards vs. Duke in the season opener, nearly tied the Rupp Arena record with 20 rebounds in his first home game, and then shattered that Rupp record with 28 boards vs. Western Kentucky. That easily surpassed Shaquille O’Neal’s previous mark of 21. It’s worth noting Tshiebwe did that primarily against the tallest player in college basketball, Jamarion Sharp, who stands at 7-foot-5. With 20 boards the following game against Missouri, his 48 boards tied for the most over a two-game span by any Division I player over the last 25 seasons (according to ESPN Stats & Info).
He concluded the season with 16 straight double-doubles, the longest streak since complete game-by-game rebounding records were kept dating back to 1969 for the Wildcats. He totaled 28 double-doubles this season which is a new UK single-season record.
Tshiebwe ended the season becoming only the second Wildcat since 1978-79 to finish the season leading the team in points per game (17.4), rebounds per game (15.1), steals per game (1.8), blocks per game (1.6) and field-goal percentage with a minimum of 100 attempts (60.6%). Davis was the other to achieve the feat.
At the conclusion of the season, Tshiebwe was responsible for 37.8% of all of UK’s rebounds. Taking away team rebounds, that number jumped to 41.2%.
Tshiebwe is racking up postseason honors by the day. The major honors he’s won so far include:
- Associated Press National Player of the Year
- NABC National Player of the Year
- NABC Pete Newell Big Man of the Year
- NCAA Consensus All-America First Team
- USBWA First-Team All-America
- NABC First-Team All-America
- Associated Press First-Team All-America
- Sporting News First-Team All-America
- Wooden Award All-America Team
- NABC All-District 20 First Team
- Southeastern Conference Player of the Year (coaches/media)
- All-SEC First Team (coaches/media)
- All-SEC Defensive Team (coaches)
- USBWA District IV Player of the Year
- USBWA All-District IV team
- CBS Sports National Player of the Year
- USA Today National Player of the Year
- USA Today First-Team All-American
- The Athletic’s National Player of the Year
- Sports Illustrated First-Team All-American
- The Field of 68 National Player of the Year
- The Field of 68 First-Team All-America
- College Hoops Today National Player of the Year
- USA Today SEC Player of the Year
- USA Today First-Team All-SEC unanimous selection
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
