Forget Player of the Year, Oscar Tshiebwe is gunning for PERSON of the Year
Kentucky Men’s Basketball officially launched Oscar Tshiebwe’s National Player of the Year campaign earlier this week. The 6-foot-9 big man is widely considered a frontrunner for the award, largely in part due to him being the most dominant rebounder college basketball has seen in decades. He’s averaging 16.4 points and 15.3 rebounds per outing through 25 contests for Kentucky this season, making a major pitch on his NPOY trail during Saturday’s 21-point win over Florida.
Tshiebwe was the best player on the court for either side. He finished with a cool 27 points, 19 rebounds, two assists, and two steals on 11-18 shooting in 38 minutes of action. He bested the Gators’ opposing star — center Colin Castleton — along the way, too. It was another masterclass performance from Big O during a season of nothing but consistency; his 19th double-double of the season and fifth game with at least 20 points and 15 rebounds.
What was once a local movement built on the eye test of the Big Blue Nation quickly blossomed into a national campaign. Prominent media voices from Dick Vitale to Jay Bilas to Andy Katz began hopping on board the Tshiebwe-for-NPOY hype train. If you ask Tshiebwe’s point guard, Sahvir Wheeler, for his opinion on the matter, he’ll extend the conversation beyond the basketball court. It’s what he does behind the scenes that makes him such a fan favorite.
“That’s self-explanatory,” Wheeler said on Saturday about Tshiebwe’s case for National Player of the Year. “Not only by his play but I wish there was a Person of the Year, I think that’s more telling. How Oscar is as a person, and I think that’s why all of the success is coming back to him. Just the way he’s selfless, the way he’s looking to give back, the way he takes his time to greet others who aren’t in his circle or in his vicinity. Just being able to put a smile on someone else’s face, and that comes back to you. I think some people call it karma.
“And he works tirelessly. He’s always in the gym, he’s always looking to get better. He takes constructive criticism even when the coaches are a little bit hard on him. Or players, even me, I might yell at him a couple of times. He always does it with a smile on his face. For us to see him perform the way he does, you gotta want him to be Player of the Year the way he’s playing. I do really want him to get it for sure.”
Throughout program history, Kentucky has just one National Player of the Year winner: Anthony Davis from the 2011-12 championship team. Tshiebwe is in an excellent position to become the second and UK head coach John Calipari fully agrees, although he doesn’t expect it to be an easy path.
“I would say (yes), but there may be some bias,” Calipari said in regards to whether or not Tshiebwe is the most impactful player in the country. “Plays at Kentucky, no way. I’ll vote for a yellow — what do they call those, blue dogs? Yellow dogs? Before I’d vote for that. He may get some of that.
“But the reality of it is if you watch and you see who he is, you’ve got to love the kid. He plays so hard. He never says a word about the officials. He smiles. He went to a grade school and was working with some kids from the Congo. They said it was ridiculous what it did for the kids and for him. He plays his heart out. He doesn’t play great every night out, but he impacts every game.”
Are there other potential NPOY options out there? Sure, but Calipari says you’d have a hard time finding one.
“I would say there may be a couple players that are having more of an impact on games than him, but I’d have to see them, and I’d have to say over the long haul, he’s doing things that haven’t been done for 45 years,” Calipari added. “Yeah, but he’s at Kentucky. I know. I get it.”
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