Oscar Tshiebwe is in a rebounding world of his own
There are bad rebounders, good rebounders and great rebounders. Then there’s Oscar Tshiebwe.
The Kentucky superstar center rocked the college basketball world last season by shattering just about every record the sport had to offer, averaging 17.4 points, 15.1 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.6 blocks per contest en route to consensus National Player of the Year honors. As a rebounder, he led the country in rebounding (15.1), offensive rebounds per game (5.3) and defensive rebounding percentage (34.6%) while also finishing second in offensive rebounding percentage (19.4%). First major-conference player to average 15-15 since UCLA’s Bill Walton in 1972-73 and the first UK player to hit those marks since Bob Burrow in 1954-55.
Working his way back from knee surgery — yes Cal, we know he hasn’t practiced — Tshiebwe is still finding his footing in hopes of returning to his dominant ways. Instead of the 17.4-15.1-1.8-1.6 he averaged last season, he’s only putting up 14.4-13.4-1.8-1.6 through five games this year.
Oh, that’s still good. Terrific, even — despite some missed gimmes at the rim (58% on layups compared to 67% last year). As a rebounder, his production and efficiency on both ends remain astronomical, averaging 8.0 defensive boards and 5.4 offensive.
Compared to the rest of the college basketball landscape, Tshiebwe is simply in a league of his own — no seriously, he nearly broke the chart tracking offensive and defensive rebound percentage.
His numbers? 34.2% on defensive rebounds, 23.2% on offensive.
No one else in college basketball has a defensive rate higher than 33.5% or an offensive rate higher than 21.4%. Tshiebwe’s got both ends of the floor locked up by a country mile.
CBB Analytics
In terms of other ridiculous analytics, Tshiebwe is averaging 18.19 defensive rebounds and 12.28 offensive rebounds per 100 possessions (No. 1) with an overall offensive rating of 122.2 and defensive rating of 76.5 — grading out slightly worse offensively from last season (128.4), but better defensively. His current usage (25.8%) is higher than last season (24.1%) as Kentucky works out some of its offensive issues, leading to some uncharacteristic misses inside (theoretically, at least).
Some glaring differences? His free throw attempt rate is extremely low compared to last season (21.8% vs. 42.0%), though he’s hitting 83.3% of those attempts. His assist rate is also exponentially higher than last season (13.9% vs. 6.2%), an aspect of his game he’s clearly worked to improve and incorporate.
And again, all of this is with Tshiebwe knocking off the rust after missing a month during the preseason. What’s he going to look like when he actually finds his groove?
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