Oscar Tshiebwe's childhood punishment was doing push-ups

It’s a well-known fact that Oscar Tshiebwe is a beast. Some may go as far as to call him a machine, although he wants to get 30 rebounds in a game before claiming that title. How do you build a beast? Push-ups, apparently. During last night’s broadcast, Jimmy Dykes shared a new fact about our favorite big man: when Oscar was growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, his father used to make him do push-ups when he misbehaved. After the game, Oscar confirmed the story on a Zoom with reporters.

“It is a true story. Our punishment — my daddy was big, 285 lbs. So if my daddy touches you, you’d probably pass out. He used to [argue] with my mom about [how to punish us], so he just said, I’m going to punish them for doing something, it’s probably going to make you do push-ups. Probably like he’s going to make you lay down and put something heavy above your head for a long time. So, I know next time I’m not going to make exactly the same mistake. It is a true story.”

It’s hard to imagine this Oscar Tshiebwe doing anything wrong, but based on his build, he must have misbehaved a lot as a child.

Oscar adds to case for National Player of the Year

Oscar finished with 21 points (7-11 FG, 7-11 FT), 22 rebounds, 3 steals, a block, and an assist in the overtime win vs. Mississippi State. It was the first 20-point/20-rebound game at Kentucky since Mike Phillips had 26 points and 28 rebounds vs. Tennessee on Jan. 10, 1976. Once again, Oscar is doing very special things at a place that’s seen a lot of very special things, which only furthers his case for National Player of the Year.

Last night was Oscar’s seventh 20-point game and fifth 20-rebound game of the season. For perspective, no other player in the country has more than one 20-rebound game this year. Oscar also notched his 14th double-double of the season which ranks third nationally. He still leads the country in rebounding, with an average of 15.2 boards per game. With a team-high scoring average of 16.3 points per game, Oscar is looking to become the first Division I player to average 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 Wildcat to do it since Bob Burrow averaged 19.1 points and 17.7 rebounds per game in 1954-55.

The win over the Bulldogs also marked the third time in four games Oscar had a career-high-tying three steals, another impressive stat. There is no more complete or impactful player in the country than him. He is still No. 1 in KenPom’s Player of the Year standings, leading Gonzaga’s Drew Timme and Ohio State’s EJ Liddell by a sizeable margin. He’s currently on midseason watch lists for two POY honors, the Wooden Award and the Lute Olson Award. Last week, he was named to the Sporting News’ First-Team Midseason All-America Team.

“I think I’m doing my thing,” Oscar said last night. “The only thing that people cannot do is you cannot stop me from getting rebounds. You can stop me sometimes from scoring but rebounding belongs to me. You cannot stop me.”

And if you try, you’ll probably have to do push-ups.