KT Turner details first meeting with Oscar Tshiebwe

Kentucky‘s newest assistant basketball coach KT Turner is still getting his feet wet in Lexington, which means the awe factor that comes with watching Wooden Award winner Oscar Tshiebwe on a daily basis has yet to wear off.

“It was unreal,” Turner said. “Like, he got a rebound today and I’m like ‘woah,’ but the way he rebounds the basketball, double-doubles and stuff – and then I got to meet him in person and see his size. I can see why he was very, very impressive last year and it’s going to be another year like that.”

Turner, a 20-year veteran in the coaching game, spent last season as Oklahoma‘s associate head coach under Porter Moser, but has never coached someone with the rebounding ability that Tshiebwe possesses.

In a record-shattering campaign for Kentucky last season, rewriting the Wildcats history books last season, averaging 17.4 points and 15.1 rebounds per contest while shooting 60.6 percent shooting from the field.

He was the first player to average at least 15 points and 15 rebounds per game since Drake’s Lewis Lloyd and Alcorn State’s Larry Smith each accomplished the feat in 1979-80. He’s also the first major conference player to average at least 16.0 points and at least 15.0 rebounds in a season since Bill Walton at UCLA in 1972-73. Bob Burrow is the last Wildcat to hit those marks, averaging 19.1 points and 17.7 rebounds per contest in 1954-55.

Tshiebwe totaled 515 rebounds last season, pulling down at least 10 boards in all but two games as a junior. He finished the year with 21 straight games with double-digit rebounds and 16 straight double-doubles to end the year. The 6-foot-9 center totaled 28 double-doubles this year, a new Kentucky single-season record.

He’s also just the fourth player since 1975 to record 500+ points and 500+ rebounds in a season, joining Kenneth Faried (Morehead State, 2010-11), Blake Griffin (Oklahoma, 2008-09), and Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston, 1983-84).

With Tshiebwe already in rarified air and a cemented superstar, its KT Turner’s and the rest of the coaching staff’s jobs to figure out how to get the ball in Tshiebwe’s hands as often and efficient as they can for next season.

With Kentucky returning a majority of its players and coaching staff following an impressive 2022 season (that ended less than impressively), the addition of Turner is just another reason why the Wildcats believe they’re poised to win their ninth NCAA Championship in program history.