Oscar Tshiebwe is a legendary rebounder. How opponents have tried, and failed, to stop him.

John Calipari found it easy enough to crack a joke and a smile Saturday afternoon.

Calipari had just slipped on a headset to speak with UK radio announcer Tom Leach in the aftermath of Kentucky’s home win over Texas A&M, with a fair amount of UK fans still inside Rupp Arena, hanging on to every word.

One of the first things out of Calipari’s mouth was a quip about his best player, the generational frontcourt presence that has been a focal point for Kentucky basketball during the last two seasons.

“He’s not normal,” Calipari joked about Oscar Tshiebwe, before imploring the fans in attendance and those listening on the radio to savor their remaining time with the reigning national player of the year.

While defensive struggles have stolen some of the headlines during his senior season, Tshiebwe remains college basketball’s greatest rebounder.

As of Thursday morning, Tshiebwe leads the country in rebounds per game (13.9), offensive rebounds per game (5.67) and total rebounds (251).

This has all been accomplished after Tshiebwe underwent an offseason knee procedure that caused him to miss UK’s first two regular season games, and with opponents armed with a season’s worth of film on how to defend the Congolese rebounding dynamo.

Many have tried to stop Tshiebwe from rebounding. Hardly anyone has succeeded.

On the eve of one of the signature matchups of Tshiebwe’s college career — a primetime Saturday night home game against defending national champion Kansas — let’s look at his rebounding prowess through the words of those who have tried (and usually failed) to stop him.

South Carolina State head coach Erik Martin

Erik Martin knows better than most about Tshiebwe’s rebounding ability.

He helped cultivate this talent, having coached Tshiebwe for two seasons as an assistant at West Virginia before Tshiebwe transferred to Kentucky.

“Oscar, he’s a great kid. Although, I wasn’t happy that he left West Virginia, I’m happy that he’s doing what he’s doing,” Martin said in November following Kentucky’s home game against South Carolina State. “You want them obviously to be successful with you, but if they leave you still cheer. So, I’m glad he’s doing well here.”

There was also a tongue-in-cheek qualifier that Martin offered postgame.

“I wish he wouldn’t have played tonight.”

In just his second game of the season — and less than 48 hours after his 22-point, 18-rebound season debut against Michigan State — Tshiebwe put up an easy seven rebounds in 14 minutes as UK beat S.C. State by 43 points.

“One time tonight, he missed a shot and by the time the ball was coming off the rim, he was already back up at the ball and getting it on the glass,” Martin recalled. “I tried to tell our guys, you’re going to have to hit him. That doesn’t mean you’re going to stop him, but at least he’ll know you’re there. And he’s just so much.”

Yale head coach James Jones

A four-game Kentucky winning streak earlier this season was capped with an uncomfortably close home win over Yale, but a triumph that was nonetheless powered by a vintage Tshiebwe performance.

A 28-point, 12-rebound effort from Tshiebwe lifted the Wildcats past the Bulldogs.

Postgame, Yale head coach James Jones detailed his plans to both guard Tshiebwe straight up with a big man, and then help on Tshiebwe with Yale’s other forward.

It didn’t work.

“We were trying to double (Tshiebwe). Again, he’s just a big, strong player in there and we would find out, almost falling down there and then make him take the ball out of bounds, because we just couldn’t guard under the basket, one-on-one,” Jones said. “You want to try to deny to see where the ball is and make it hard for him every time he catches it and double him. (Tshiebwe) does a pretty good job because we doubled big-on-big.”

UCLA senior guard Jaime Jaquez Jr.

A theme that has emerged at times during this Kentucky season is that even when Tshiebwe is limited offensively from a points standpoint, the rebounding production remains.

A textbook example came in defeat, when UK had one of its worst offensive outputs in recent history in a loss to UCLA as part of the CBS Sports Classic in New York City.

UK scored only 53 points, with just eight of those from Tshiebwe, who shot 4-for-12 from the field and missed all four of his free-throw attempts.

But despite this, Tshiebwe still lived on the glass with 16 rebounds: This marked the final game of a six-game stretch in which Tshiebwe had at least 12 rebounds in every game.

Postgame, UCLA guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. (who stands 6-7 himself) offered a first-person perspective on what it’s like to go up against Tshiebwe (listed at 6-9).

“That man is a tank,” Jaquez said succinctly. “Seeing him play is different than when you actually play.”

LSU senior forward KJ Williams

While Jaquez can offer a first-person perspective from the hardwood, what about someone who directly battled against Tshiebwe on most possessions?

Enter KJ Williams, a former standout at Murray State who followed head coach Matt McMahon to LSU this offseason.

Williams went toe-to-toe with Tshiebwe during UK’s SEC home opener, during which Tshiebwe played all 40 minutes.

UK needed every minute from its talismanic big man as Tshiebwe provided 19 points and 16 rebounds in a three-point Kentucky win.

Tshiebwe’s 16 rebounds were only six less than LSU had as a team, and his innate ability to locate the ball after it deflects off the rim and glass was something that stuck with Williams when he spoke postgame.

“It was the opportunity of the lifetime for me to go up against a great player like him,” Williams said. “He knows how to get to his spots very well and knows where the ball goes when it comes off the rim. Credit him, he attacks the rim and tries to get the offensive and defensive rebounds.”

Georgia head coach Mike White

Tshiebwe has played against a Mike White-coached team three times in his college career, all coming as a member of the Kentucky Wildcats.

UK is 3-0 in those games (two wins over Florida and one over Georgia), and White is probably sick of seeing Tshiebwe line up across from his team.

Over those three games, Tshiebwe has averaged 30 points and 19 rebounds per contest, gaudy stats that were significantly boosted by what happened last week in Lexington.

Tshiebwe had a career-high 37 points and a season-high 24 points in UK’s latest win over White, a performance that etched Tshiebwe’s name in history.

It was the first game of at least 35 points and 20 rebounds by a UK player since Mike Phillips in 1976.

When trying to explain what Tshiebwe just did to his team, White referenced some of the earlier times that Tshiebwe has gotten the better of his team

“We had one here last year, Florida versus Kentucky, where he was incredibly dominant. Like unbelievably dominant, but not even this dominant,” White said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of this. He was unbelievable. Credit him and his mentality, his motor and physical toughness, his physicality that he played with, even defensively. We just didn’t match it. At all.”

White also elaborated on the mindset of a head coach about to face Tshiebwe.

“When you’re preparing for Oscar, no matter what you do, you tell yourself as a coach, ‘He’s going to find a way to get a double-double.’ It’s going to be hard for him not to,” White explained.

The strategy for Georgia was to go one-on-one against Tshiebwe in order to make it harder for UK’s perimeter players to get space and hit outside shots.

How’d that go for White?

“Obviously it wasn’t the right decision,” he said. “We doubled him some more in the second half, got into some rotations and he continued to just go get it off the glass.. ... When we doubled him and kicked it out, he still got it. He got it off missed free throws and missed field goals, he was unbelievable.”

Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams

How did Tshiebwe follow up his generational performance against Georgia?

By remaining an elite rebounding presence, even when Texas A&M helped negate his direct offensive production.

Tshiebwe had 17 rebounds to go along with seven points last weekend as Kentucky held on for a nine-point win over a Texas A&M team that was previously unbeaten in SEC play.

The Aggies knew what they were walking into. But head coach Buzz Williams lamented postgame about the difficulty of preparing for Tshiebwe, perhaps the root cause of so many teams’ frustration over the last two seasons.

“I don’t know that you can prep. We can’t prep (or) mimic the physicality that 34 (Tshiebwe) plays with,” Williams said. “The stress that he causes on both ends is, I mean we show clips and we talk about it, we try to have guys mimic it, but I mean he’s the reigning national player of the year. ... As far as 34 is concerned, it’s hard to practice against that unless he’s on your team I guess.”

All-time Kentucky men’s basketball rebounding leaderboard

With Tuesday night’s 13-rebound effort in a blowout win at Vanderbilt, Tshiebwe passed a trio of UK legends on the school’s all-time rebounding leaderboard: Jamal Mashburn, Tayshaun Prince and Mike Phillips.

Here’s where Tshiebwe currently ranks in UK rebounding history:

▪ 1. Dan Issel (1968-70) 1,078

▪ 2. Frank Ramsey (1951-52, 54) 1,038

▪ 3. Cliff Hagan (1951-52, 54) 1,035

▪ 4. Johnny Cox (1957-59) 1,004

▪ 5. Cotton Nash (1962-64) 962

▪ 6. Kenny Walker (1983-86) 942

▪ 7. Chuck Hayes (2002-05) 910

▪ 8. Sam Bowie (1980-81, 84) 843

▪ 9. Rick Robey (1975-78) 838

▪ 10. Bob Burrow (1955-56) 823

▪ 11. Winston Bennett (1983–88) 799

▪ 12. Jack Givens (1974–78) 793

▪ 13. Patrick Patterson (2007–10) 791

▪ 14. Jamaal Magloire (1997-2000) 789

▪ T15. Ed Beck (1955-58) 783

▪ T15. Jim Andrews (1970-73) 783

▪ 17. Jared Prickett (1993-97) 777

▪ 18. Oscar Tshiebwe (2022-23) 766

▪ 19. Jamal Mashburn (1991-93) 760

▪ 20. Tayshaun Prince (1998-2002) 757

▪ 21. Mike Phillips (1975-78) 755

Note: Tshiebwe totaled 365 rebounds in 41 games across two seasons at West Virginia before transferring to Kentucky. His 1,131 career rebounds would place him No. 1 on this list.

This story was originally published January 26, 2023 at 10:01 AM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription