KSR Today: Deja Blue all over again with Oscar Tshiebwe at Rupp Arena
Tuesday night felt familiar at Rupp Arena, too familiar. Facing an inferior SEC foe, Oscar Tshiebwe put the team on his back to help the Wildcats weather a storm against a hot-hand. Last night Georgia was the victim, falling 85-71, but you’ve seen this exact game before. You probably just forgot about it.
It was actually John Calipari’s 800th win as a head coach. Iverson Molinar scored 30 points, ultimately forcing overtime where Kellan Grady put away Mississippi State. The Big O had 22 points and 21 rebounds in that dominant Jan. 2022 performance. This dominant Jan. 2023 performance was even more impressive.
Oscar Tshiebwe scored a career-high 37 points and threw in a season-high 24 rebounds. When the Wildcats were struggling to regain steam following the Tennessee win, Oscar delivered. It sounds like he received the message from John Calipari’s call-in show.
He had a team-high 14 points at intermission and Kentucky trailed by eight points, thanks to an explosive start by Terry Roberts, who scored 13 of his 21 points in the first half. The Wildcats needed energy and Oscar injected it into Rupp Arena. Tshiebwe had the Wildcats’ first nine points of the second half. The last of which was an ‘and one.’ He missed the free throw, recovered the rebound and kicked it to an open CJ Fredrick for three. Kentucky retook the lead in less than three minutes, all thanks to the Big O.
This all felt like deja vu all over again, and in a good way. Oscar Tshiebwe once again looked like the best player in college basketball and his teammates rallied around him. It wasn’t perfect, at times even ugly, but Kentucky stacked up a win on top of another win and that’s exactly what these Wildcats need.
Oscar Tshiebwe Statistical Anomalies
The 37-24 stat line is bonkers. It also does not include his blocked shot, three steals and 13 made free throws (pretty good for a guy who was shooting 67% from the charity stripe). How does 37-24 fit in historically?
— He’s the first SEC player with 30-20 since South Carolina’s Sindarius Thornwell in 2017 and the first Wildcat since Mike Phillips in 1976.
— It’s the most rebounds by a college basketball player in 35-point game in the last 25 seasons. There have been more than 2,800 35-point games over the last 25 seasons.
— Since 1951 only one other Wildcat was posted 37-24. Bill Spivey also did it in 1951, the same year he set UK’s single-season rebounding record with 527. Oscar’s 2022 season is the third-best in school history, 52 shy of tying Spivey’s all-time mark.
Cason Wallace Shakes Off Back Spasms
As Oscar Tshiebwe took over, Cason Wallace showed us what he can become. Over the last few outings we were left wanting more from the freshman phenom. It just didn’t look like he had it. That might have been the back spasms slowing him down. After another familiar, rocky first half, the Cason Wallace the BBN was waiting for arrived.
The once clunky offense looked smooth with Wallace running the show. Folks had room to operate, namely, himself. He scored 11 of his 17 points in the second and it came in a variety of ways, most impressively at the rim. With No. 22 running the show, Kentucky out-scored Georgia by 22 points in the second half.
Sahvir Wheeler Relegated
As Wallace stepped up, Sahvir Wheeler spent time on the bench, more than he has all year long. After missing the Tennessee game with a shoulder injury, he did not start against Georgia. With Wallace in foul trouble in the first half, Wheeler had a couple of assists but did not wow the viewing audience. When he entered the game in the second half he quickly turned it over, which led to a transition bucket for Georgia. He was subbed out of the tie ballgame and never returned. Instead, Calipari primarily played a lineup featuring Wallace-Reeves-Fredrick-Toppin-Tshiebwe.
““The only thing I worried about was defensively, and that means you’re putting a lot of weight on Jacob (Toppin) to rebound. He did it, so you can play with three guards…” Calipari said after the game, “… But the game, whether it was he or Sahvir (Wheeler), the game just dictated to me this is how you’ve got to play this. It’s not brain surgery. We were all watching the same thing.”
Cason Wallace was a team-high +22. Wheeler was at the exact opposite end of the spectrum at -9. Watching his body language on the bench, he is well aware of what’s happening. I’m sure it’s not exactly how he planned on celebrating his birthday against his former team, but it’s not personal, it’s personnel.
So. Many. Whistles.
You’re probably sleepy this morning because the 9 p.m. game took even longer than they expected thanks to so many whistles. There were a combined 42 personal fouls called in 40 minutes of basketball. That does not include the two coach’s box warnings John Calipari received. This came just three days after another 42-personal foul performance by the stripes in Knoxville. College basketball has an officiating problem and it needs to be addressed by the sport’s leaders.
Calipari, Players, Rapid Reaction from the Kentucky Win
The Best Snapshots from the Kentucky Victory
Lynn Bowden Spotted in the Bluegrass
The BBN’s favorite jack-of-all-trades on the football field spent the second half of the season with Bill Belichick on the New England Patriots practice squad, his third NFL team in as many years. Now he appears to be back in the Bluegrass. He was spotted yesterday at a nail salon in Georgetown and these Wildcat fans said he couldn’t have been nicer.
Willie Cauley-Stein: Still Dunking on Dudes
The former Wildcat is still grinding. Last season he appeared in 40 games for three different NBA teams. Relegated to the G League in 2023, few make catching lobs look as effortless as Willie Cauley-Stein.
In the high school ranks, we got a spectacular dunk sighting between North Hardin and John Hardin.
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