Oscar Tshiebwe's message to Shaedon Sharpe amid NBA Draft decision

Shaedon Sharpe or no Shaedon Sharpe, Oscar Tshiebwe believes Kentucky will be good next season; however, the big man admitted today that if Sharpe comes back instead of going to the NBA Draft, the Cats will be playing “a different level of basketball.”

“He is definitely a bucket,” Oscar said of Sharpe. “He can play. I want him back. I want him back but it’s up to him. For me, I’m good. I already see what Coach Cal has for us coming. I don’t see any — I see everybody ready to go. We’re going to make each other better in practice and we’ll be good. Shaedon decides to come back, phew, it will be a different level of basketball for us. But if he decides to stay in the draft, we’re good. Either way, we’re good.”

Kentucky currently has three players testing the NBA Draft waters: Sharpe, Keion Brooks, and Jacob Toppin. After receiving his feedback from the league, Oscar chose to return to Kentucky to improve his game over the next year. He advised his teammates to take their time with their decisions and if they don’t like what they hear, return to school and win a championship with him.

“Right now, we’ve got some guys that are testing the waters. We just let them go see. I did not, me personally, I did not want to go through those things. You know when they tell you, this is what you need to work on. I feel like I did not want to go prove to them, I’m good, I can do this, I can do this. I’m just going to take my time and work on those things and in my time, it will come. You’re going to see on the draft board. I’ll be highly ranked.

“To those out there, Shaedon, Keion, everybody, we’ll let them see. I tell them, see if you don’t like it. If you hear something good, go. Coach Cal is going to bring somebody good [in]. We’re going to play basketball. If you don’t hear anything good, come back and let’s win a championship and it’s going to help everybody on this team.”

Oscar’s message to Bryce Hopkins and Dontaie Allen

Bryce Hopkins and Dontaie Allen entered the transfer portal after the season ended, with Allen committing to Western Kentucky. As someone familiar with the transfer process, Oscar offered them some advice.

“Happiness is the key to success. Wherever you are, if you’re not happy, you’ve got to go somewhere where you’ll be happy because you’ve got to achieve your dream by being happy. They were here and I’ll be praying for them and I hope they can accomplish what they want to do in their life, they can get whatever they want to get.

“Bryce is a good kid. Dontaie is good. That’s my brothers. I love all of them but it seems like they were not happy so I pray. I’m happy for them, wherever they chose to be. They’ve got to just keep working hard. It’s not going to be easy, no matter where you go. Success doesn’t come easy. Success comes with pain, struggle, and a lot of different things but you’ve got to be man enough, strong, to keep going.

“So, they’ve got to work harder. If things don’t work well at Kentucky, don’t expect that wherever you go, things are going to be easy. You’ve got to fight for whatever you want in your life. If you don’t fight for it, somebody’s going to take it.”

As with everything Oscar says, that is good advice for us all.