Oscar Tshiebwe at the center of chippy UK-Arkansas game. ‘They tried to punk us.’
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Game day: No. 23 Kentucky 88, Arkansas 79
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.
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The final day of the 2022-23 college basketball regular season was a big one for Kentucky.
But it was an afternoon that reigning national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe will probably want to put behind him.
UK defeated Arkansas 88-79 in a raucous Bud Walton Arena on Saturday, a game highlighted by Antonio Reeves’ 37 points for a Wildcats’ team that had zero point guards for the entire 40 minutes. The victory locked up the 3 seed in the Southeastern Conference Tournament next week and sent Kentucky (21-10, 12-6 SEC) home with another marquee win for its NCAA Tournament résumé.
Tshiebwe watched much of it from the Kentucky bench.
Kentucky’s star player had 12 points and 13 rebounds against the Razorbacks, securing a double-double less than a minute into the second half after recording just seven points and seven boards in UK’s 88-73 loss to Arkansas in Rupp Arena last month. So, the stat line was an improvement, and Tshiebwe was instrumental in helping the shorthanded Cats get off to a good start.
He was also at the center of a couple of controversial moments and played just 10 minutes of the second half due to foul trouble, picking up his fifth and heading to the bench for good with 4:53 left.
Less than four minutes into the game — before the first TV timeout — the referees stopped play following a physical back-and-forth between Tshiebwe and Arkansas big man Makhel Mitchell in the paint. Players from both teams had to be separated, Tshiebwe was as agitated as he’s been in a Kentucky uniform — jawing with Mitchell and then other Arkansas players — before being ushered to the UK bench as officials went to the video monitor.
The replay showed that, amid the jockeying for position, Tshiebwe had landed an elbow to the side of Mitchell’s head. The announcement in the arena said that Tshiebwe and Arkansas freshman Anthony Black would be issued technical fouls, while Mitchell would receive a personal foul. (The official stats logged all three as personal fouls, however.)
Even after the timeout and referee review, Tshiebwe was still hot when he walked back onto the court. As the officials wrapped things up, Tshiebwe animatedly re-enacted for Toppin what had happened under the basket.
With 1:17 left in the first half, Arkansas got under Tshiebwe’s skin again, and he flailed at Arkansas senior Kamani Johnson, making contact with his face in the process. That got the UK big man a Flagrant 1 and his second personal foul.
“It got a little dirty at times, where people were pushing and shoving closer to the neck/face area,” Toppin said after the game. “So he had to get his get-back, and that’s what he did. But at the end of the day, he needs to stay on the court. So he has to be smarter than that. And I told him he has to be smarter than that. … Moving forward, he’ll be better.”
It was an uncharacteristic afternoon for Tshiebwe, who has been banged and bodied all season by opposing bigs but typically lets his game speak for itself. The CBS announcers calling the game opined that Tshiebwe should have been tossed for the incident with Mitchell.
“He starts getting frustrated,” John Calipari said. “You know, just get grabbed and pushed and held enough — you get frustrated. Watch the tape. They’re not allowed to block out facing him. As soon as they do it, it’s a foul. … The rule book says you cannot face a guy and block him out.”
Calipari has complained about this before, most notably when Tennessee’s Uroš Plavšić has done it in the past, turning away from the basket to face Tshiebwe and block him out more like a football lineman — face to face — than a basketball player.
“It’s frustrating,” Calipari said. “ … But that’s not him. I mean, he’s been here two years. You’ve not seen him do anything like that.”
Toppin said he talked to Tshiebwe after the game and reminded him of his importance to Kentucky’s team, something rivals know well.
“I spoke to him about that,” he said. “I told him, ‘Moving forward, teams are going to try to get in your head. And they’re going to try to get you out of the game, because they know what type of player you are. And what type of player you are to this team.’ …
“He let it get to his head a little bit. Maybe there was some back and forth where he didn’t like it, which is understandable. But at the end of the day, we need you in the game. I told him that. He fully understands it. And moving forward, no one’s going to get in his head again.”
Reeves and Toppin, who combined for 58 points, were the two players made available to reporters after the game, so Tshiebwe didn’t get to tell his side of the story. It was a rough affair all the way around. There were three technical fouls in addition to the two altercations in the first half, and Calipari and Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman were all over the referees all afternoon. The Bud Walton crowd provided perhaps the loudest environment UK had seen all season.
In the end, the Cats pulled out a gritty victory.
“We’ve been through a lot, and we understand teams are going to be aggressive with us,” Toppin said. “But we’re not going for any of it. They tried to punk us. And we weren’t having it. So we came back at them, and that’s when they started saying, like, ‘Oh.’ They threw their first punch, then we threw ours. And they were a little hesitant after that.
“We just had to stand our ground. We knew we were in their house. And we knew what we had to do to win the game.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2023 at 7:35 PM.
