Oscar Tshiebwe details Kentucky's mindset coming off of last season

Oscar Tshiebwe rewrote the rebounding record books at Kentucky, and was a historic board-grabber even by NCAA standards — one of the only power-five players in the last several decades to average as many rebounds per game as he did last season. As a result, he swept National Player of the Year awards and was obviously a consensus first-team All-American.

Heading into the 2022-23 season, is the book out on how to stop the machine known as the Big O? Tshiebwe himself is certainly expecting a tougher time now that the opposition knows what to expect. The big man knows he’ll just have to adjust and get even better. The other day, he met with the media to discuss the upcoming season, including how he views his development.

“Now, we’re in a new season. Now, everybody says ‘we’re not letting Oscar do what he did last year. We’re not letting Oscar become Player of the Year again.’ Most people ask me ‘why did you come back to school, you can’t do more than what you did last year.’ I told them the only limit is what you place in front of you,” Tshiebwe said. “There is never a limit in everything in life. You can do anything. So I think I just keep working harder, listen to the coach, and trust God. I think God has got a better plan for me than what I’m thinking.”

As with most things in his life, the sky is the limit for Tshiebwe. He also believes that’s true of the new Kentucky basketball team as a whole.

“I think this team has a lot of potential to be the No. 1 team in the country,” Tshiebwe said. “If we keep the same routine and everything right now — we stay together — we have a lot of chance to be No. 1. We can keep up for a long time if we just stay together.”

Oscar Tshiebwe continues preaching nothing but positivity, togetherness and working hard. That mindset earned him unanimous Player of the Year honors as well as helping guide his team to a 26-7 finish in the regular season to earn a No. 2-seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Clearly, this year’s goal will be repeating that success but with a much better end to the year.