Oscar Tshiebwe taking different approach to 2nd postseason with Kentucky

We don’t need to talk too much about what happened to Kentucky men’s basketball during last season’s NCAA Tournament. Coming into the event as a No. 2 seed, the Wildcats were upset by No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s in overtime. After a regular season filled with the highest of highs, it hit the lowest of lows down the stretch.

Oscar Tshiebwe knows that better than anyone.

In that loss to the Peacocks, Tshiebwe was the only Wildcat who came ready to play. He finished with 30 points and 16 rebounds on 11-16 shooting. The rest of his team shot just 11-30 combined. Sahvir Wheeler was the next highest-leading scorer with 11 points. Late-season injuries certainly didn’t help Kentucky’s chances, but losing in historic fashion to Saint Peter’s was still unprecedented (and, quite frankly, unacceptable) for this caliber of program.

After winning National Player of the Year, Tshiebwe elected to return for the 2022-23 season with goals of redeeming himself and the team. While this year hasn’t exactly gone according to plan, Kentucky is still in solid position to make some noise heading into the postseason. The ‘Cats earned a double bye in this week’s 2023 SEC Tournament and are trending towards earning a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The circumstances are much different this season than last, and Tshiebwe is using his past experience to take a different approach to the upcoming tournaments. Nothing is going to be easy…

“I’m going in different. I’m going in very different,” Tshiebwe told the media on Wednesday. “Go and play, I don’t care how much I score, how much I do. I’m just gonna do my best to help my team to win. I am gonna do everything I can just to help. If somebody’s on fire, let’s keep giving him the ball. We don’t care if he got 100 (points), we got to win the game.”

Tshiebwe is preaching this mindset to the rest of his teammates. Kentucky learned the hard way last season that there are no “gimme” games once the postseason turns up. Obviously, every team is fighting to keep their season alive. Mid-major or not, a program doesn’t make the field of 68 without having a credible amount of talent on the roster (and the belief of pulling off an upset at the front of their minds).

While there is certainly plenty of pressure on this group of Wildcats to make a run in the postseason, going in as a lower seed might oddly take some of that pressure off. Yes, Kentucky is still going to get every opponent’s best shot, but there won’t be any shock value when they come out of the gate looking to make history once again against the ‘Cats.

Tshiebwe actually prefers it this way. Kentucky didn’t take Saint Peter’s seriously (which is an entirely different conversation); that won’t be the case against a higher seed knowing how sour the taste of defeat can be.

“I love right now. Because now we know, we’re about to just fight. I did not like one-seed, two-seed, three-seed, you get to compete against some teams that come in with a different mindset: Kentucky is not beating us,” Tshiebwe said. “For us, we’re saying we’re playing Saint Peter’s, we playing this team, it’s gonna be easy for us. No. Remember, they’re in March Madness for a very good reason. If any team makes it to March Madness, that means they’ve got good players, they can play. I like where we are, whatever seed they put us, so we know that every team we’re about to go against, it’s gonna be a fight.

“There is not a gift game.”

Injuries have once again infected this team at the worst possible time, but Kentucky is playing well-rounded basketball (maybe even better than this time last season) heading into the postseason. Now, they need to bring a well-rounded mental approach along with it.