Kentucky transfer target Oscar Tshiebwe expected to announce his new school Sunday
Former five-star basketball recruit and West Virginia standout Oscar Tshiebwe is expected to announce his transfer decision sometime Sunday.
247Sports analyst Travis Branham reported late Friday night that Tshiebwe — a 6-foot-9, 260-pound center from Lubumbashi, Congo — had wrapped up his video conference calls with college coaches and would take the day Saturday to think about his next college destination before a planned announcement of his final choice Sunday.
Tshiebwe met with coaches from Miami and North Carolina State on Thursday, and he was scheduled to talk to coaches from Illinois and Kentucky on Friday night. He is expected to pick one of those four schools. Illinois and Kentucky both hosted Tshiebwe for official visits when he was a high school recruit, and his decision then came down to UK and West Virginia, which started recruiting him almost as soon as he moved to the United States.
247Sports ranked Tshiebwe as the No. 23 overall recruit in the 2019 class.
Tshiebwe averaged 11.2 points and 9.3 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per game as a freshman last season. He struggled some in his sophomore season, averaging 8.5 points and 7.8 rebounds in 19.9 minutes per game before it was announced last weekend that he would be leaving the program. The Herald-Leader reported during the week that UK was one of the first schools that reached out and that the Wildcats would likely be one of the finalists in his transfer process.
Miami has been mentioned in recruiting circles as a possible favorite. However, 247Sports does have a Crystal Ball feature for transfers, and — as of early Saturday morning — no predictions had been logged on Tshiebwe’s page.
Tshiebwe is expected to be eligible to play for his new school at the beginning of the 2021-22 season, and he is planning to enroll in classes for the upcoming spring semester at his next college.
