How Wooden Award Winners Fared in Return to College Basketball

Oscar Tshiebwe is back. Kentucky’s first ever unanimous National Player Player of the Year announced Wednesday afternoon that he will return for one more season in Lexington. In 2022 Tshiebwe became the 19th underclassman to win the Wooden Award. Given to college basketball’s top player since 1977, he just the third winner to return for another collegiate season. How the two predecessors fared provides insight on what to expect from Tshiebwe next season.

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Ralph Sampson

The Goliath was once expected to commit to Kentucky. In a last-minute twist, he reversed course to dominate the ACC as a Virginia Cavalier. In 1982 Virginia only lost two regular season games before they were upset by UAB in Birmingham in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Ralph Sampson won the Wooden Award by averaging 15.8 points, 11.4 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game.

Sampson returned for the 1983 season and was even better, posting career highs in points (19), field goal percentage (60.4%) and rebounds (11.7). He became the first and only player to ever repeat as the Wooden Award winner. It still could not get Virginia a title. The Cavaliers defeated NC State twice in the regular season, but lost to Jim Valvano’s squad in the ACC Tournament Title and the Elite Eight.

Tyler Hansbrough

Tyler Hansbrough was one of the most hated college basketball players of the first decade of the 21st century because he was the best of the best. In 2008 he averaged 20.7 points and 8.1 rebounds per game to win the Wooden Award as a junior. North Carolina was shellacked by Kansas in the Final Four, falling by 18 points to convince Psycho T to return to the Tar Heels for one more season.

Unlike Sampson, Hansbrough’s numbers did not improve in his final season. However, it was exactly what North Carolina needed to get revenge for the previous season’s postseason loss. The Tar Heels dominated every opponent in the NCAA Tournament, winning each game by at least 12 points to win the school’s fifth National Championship.

History has a knack for repeating itself. If that’s the case with Oscar Tshiebwe, you can expect the big man to either improve his impressive numbers, or help the Wildcats go on a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. Maybe even both.