Who is having the better season: Oscar Tshiebwe or Kofi Cockburn?
Dick Vitale’s tweet Wednesday proclaiming that Kentucky center Oscar Tshiebwe was “certainly at this moment the leader for player of the year in college basketball” got some pushback from one particular fan base.
Illinois fans: What about Kofi Cockburn?
“When Oscar starts competing on the same level as Kofi Cockburn then we can revisit this,” tweeted one Illini fan. “Until that time comes, just know that Kofi is the best big man in the country.”
You remember Cockburn, Illinois’ 7-foot center from Kingston, Jamaica, who briefly entered the transfer portal at the end of last season — and reportedly had some interest in Kentucky — before deciding to return to Champaign-Urbana.
Tshiebwe is a 6-9 center from Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, who played a season and a half at West Virginia before transferring to Kentucky midseason a year ago.
Both Cockburn and Tshiebwe are having excellent 2021-22 seasons while leading their respective teams. With Oscar, Kentucky is 13-3 and ranked No. 18 in the latest AP Top 25. With Kofi, Illinois is 11-3 and ranked 25th.
Who’s having the better season? You decide.
Cockburn has had seven games in which he has scored 20-or-more points and 10 games in which he has grabbed 10-or-more rebounds. Cockburn has 10 double-doubles on the season, including his last eight games.
Tshiebwe has scored 20-or-more points in six games and grabbed 10-or-more rebounds in 14 games. Tshiebwe has 12 double-doubles on the season. His longest double-double streak is four games.
[NCAA double-double statistics]
Tshiebwe scored a career-high 30 points in Kentucky’s 78-66 win at Vanderbilt on Tuesday. That topped his career-high of 29 against Georgia just three days earlier. Tshiebwe grabbed a career-high 28 rebounds in UK’s win over Western Kentucky on Dec. 22. He has collected 20-or-more rebounds in four games this season.
Cockburn scored a career-high 38 points in Illinois’ 94-85 win over UT Rio Grande Valley on Nov. 26. His season-high in rebounds is 18, against Maryland on Jan. 6 and at Iowa on Dec. 6.
Illinois plays host to Michigan on Friday at 9 p.m. EST. Fox Sports 1 has the telecast.
Kentucky plays host to Tennessee on Saturday at 1 p.m. EST. ESPN has the telecast.
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
