SEC coaches name Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe their player of the year
The Southeastern Conference announced Tuesday that Oscar Tshiebwe is its Player of the Year for the 2021-22 season. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest the league could have named him Player of the Half Century.
Thumbing through multiple pages of a record book almost game by game has been required to put into perspective Tshiebwe’s statistical performances this season.
He will go into this week’s SEC Tournament with the third-most rebounds in program history. His 474 rebounds trail only Bill Spivey’s 567 in 1950-51 and Cliff Hagan’s 528 in 1951-52.
Tshiebwe has had 10-plus rebounds in 18 straight games. That’s a record for a UK player dating back to the 1967-68 season when complete game-by-game rebounding totals were first recorded. That surpasses the previous longest such streak by a major-conference player of 17 straight set by Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan in the 1996-97 season.
In the preseason, Tshiebwe said he wanted to average 20 rebounds this season. Teammates said they initially laughed at what seemed an implausible objective.
The laughter surely started subsiding in the season’s opening game. Tshiebwe set a Champions Classic record with 20 rebounds against Duke.
Later, Tshiebwe broke the Rupp Arena record with 28 rebounds against Western Kentucky. That surpassed Shaquille O’Neal’s previous mark of 21.
With 20 rebounds a week later against Missouri, Tshiebwe’s total of 48 equaled the most over a two-game span by any Division I player in the last 25 seasons (according to ESPN Stats & Info).
Tshiebwe became the 10th Kentucky player named SEC Player of the Year in a vote of the league’s coaches. The award began in 1987. He is the fifth UK player to win the coaches’ vote for the award in John Calipari’s 13 seasons as coach. He follows John Wall (2010), Anthony Davis (2012), Tyler Ulis (2016) and Immanuel Quickley (2020).
Tshiebwe, who was also voted to the league’s All-Defensive Team, will go into the SEC Tournament leading Division I in rebound average (15.3 per game) and offensive rebound average (5.29).
The last player in Kentucky basketball history to average at least 14 boards per game in a season is Ed Beck: 14.1 in the 1956-57. Bob Burrow set the Kentucky single-season record of 17.7 rebounds per game in the 1954-55 season.
Only two players in John Calipari’s 13 seasons as UK coach have averaged double-digit rebounds: Anthony Davis (2012) and Randle (2014). Both averaged 10.4 rebounds.
Tshiebwe ranks second among Division I players with 25 double-doubles. He has had double-digit points and rebounds in each of Kentucky’s last 13 games. The longest streak for a UK player prior to Tshiebwe was 12 straight by Dan Issel in 1969-70.
Tshiebwe’s 25 double-doubles make him just the seventh UK player to amass 20 or more double-doubles in a single season. Issel has the record with 26 in 1969-70.
The rebound numbers overshadow Tshiebwe’s overall impact. In addition to rebounding, he is currently leading Kentucky in points per game (17.3), steals per game (1.9), blocks per game (1.5) and field-goal percentage with a minimum of 100 attempts (60.6 percent).
Since the 1978-79 season, only one Wildcat has led the team in those five categories (minimum 130 field-goal attempts) in a single season: Davis in 2011-12
Tshiebwe’s season has given the record book repeated workouts.
His 30 points and 18 rebounds at Arkansas made him the first UK player to have such numbers in a SEC road game since Issel scored 53 points and grabbed 19 rebounds at Ole Miss on Feb. 7, 1970.
Tshiebwe had a 21-point, 22-rebound performance against Mississippi State, which was the first 20-20 game for a Wildcat since Mike Phillips did it twice in 1976.
His 29 points and 17 rebounds against Georgia made Tshiebwe the first UK player with at least 29 points and at least 17 rebounds in a game since Jamal Mashburn totaled 38 points and 19 boards against Eastern Kentucky on Dec. 8, 1992.
Three days later, Tshiebwe scored a career-high 30 points and 13 rebounds at Vanderbilt. That marked the first 30-point, 10 rebound-game for a UK player since Patrick Patterson did it against Tennessee State on Dec. 22, 2008.
The back-to-back performances also marked the first time a Kentucky player has scored at least 29 points in consecutive Southeastern Conference games since Kenny Walker in February of 1985.
Tshiebwe was named to the All-SEC First Team. Teammates Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington were named second-team All-SEC.
Although Calipari had promoted Davion Mintz as Sixth Man of the Year, the SEC coaches gave the award to Tari Eason of LSU. Eason was LSU’s leading scorer with an average of 16.9 points per game.
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 11:23 AM.
