LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the second time in two days, Kentucky junior forward Oscar Tshiebwe was named to an NCAA-recognized All-America team. He was a first-team pick to the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ selection on Wednesday.
Tshiebwe is the first Wildcat to earn All-America distinction by the organization since PJ Washington was a third-team choice in 2019 and the first to earn first-team distinction since Willie Cauley-Stein in 2015. The NABC is one of the four “major” NCAA-recognized All-America teams that the NCAA uses for its consensus All-America teams. The other three are the Associated Press, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the Sporting News.
Tshiebwe is well on his way to earning consensus first-team status after already hauling in honors from the AP and the Sporting News as well. Tyler Ulis in 2016 is UK’s last consensus first-team selection.
The Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo native was joined on the NABC’s First Team by Johnny Davis (Wisconsin), Ochai Agbaji (Kansas), Kofi Cockburn (Illinois) and Jaden Ivey (Purdue).
Tshiebwe is the 12th player under John Calipari to earn All-America honors by one of the four major organizations. He joins John Wall (2010), DeMarcus Cousins (2010), Anthony Davis (2012), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (2012), Julius Randle (2014), Cauley-Stein (2015), Karl-Anthony Towns (2015), Ulis (2016), Jamal Murray (2016), Malik Monk (2017) and Washington (2019) in earning All-America distinction by either the Sporting News, AP, USBWA or the NABC. He is the 56th player overall in program history to earn All-America distinction.
Tshiebwe is not only averaging a double-double but doing so with a considerable margin — averaging a team-best 17.0 points and a nation-leading 15.1 rebounds per game. He is looking to become the first Division I player to average at least 15.0 points and at least 15.0 rebounds per game since Drake’s Lewis Lloyd and Alcorn State’s Larry Smith each did during the 1979-80 season, and the first major-conference player to average at least 16.0 points and at least 15.0 rebounds for a season since Bill Walton at UCLA in 1972-73. He would be the first Wildcat to do it since Bob Burrow tallied 19.1 points and 17.7 rebounds per game in 1954-55.
In addition to his offensive and rebounding prowess, on the defensive end Tshiebwe is the only major conference player averaging at least 1.6 blocked shots and 1.6 steals per game. He has also snared 64 more rebounds than the next closest player this season, through games on March 13.
Tshiebwe has corralled at least 10 boards in all but two games this season, and is in the midst of a stretch of 20 straight games with double-digit rebounds. That’s a record for the Wildcats dating back to the 1967-68 season with complete game-by-game rebounding records. Dan Issel had two stretches of 12 such games. It’s also the longest stretch by any SEC player since at least 1996- 97.
Tshiebwe has been elite on the glass from the very beginning of the season. He set new records for the Champions Classic and UK debut with 20 boards vs. Duke in the season opener, nearly tied the Rupp Arena record with 20 rebounds in his first home game, and then shattered that Rupp record with 28 boards vs. Western Kentucky. That easily surpassed Shaquille O’Neal’s previous mark of 21. It’s worth noting Tshiebwe did that primarily against the tallest player in college basketball, Jamarion Sharp, who stands at 7-foot-5. With 20 boards the following game against Missouri, his 48 boards tied for the most over a two-game span by any Division I player over the last 25 seasons (according to ESPN Stats & Info).
With 499 rebounds on the season, Tshiebwe has the third-most in one season in UK history, and the most since Cliff Hagan in 1952. Two players have corralled more than 500 in a season (Bill Spivey — 567 in 1951 and Hagan — 528 in 1952). If Tshiebwe continues to average 15 rebounds per game, he would need to play in five more games to break Spivey’s single-season record.
Tshiebwe is in the midst of notching 15 straight double-doubles, the longest streak since complete game-by-game rebounding records were kept dating back to 1969. He has totaled 27 double-doubles this season to break Issel’s UK single-season record of 26 back in in 1969-70. He trails Navy’s David Robinson’s single-season record of 31 by just five which was set in 1985-86.
He is currently leading the Wildcats in points per game (17.0), rebounds per game (15.1), steals per game (1.8), blocks per game (1.6) and field-goal percentage with a minimum of 100 attempts (60.2%). 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.
Furthermore, Tshiebwe is responsible for 37.6% of all of UK’s rebounds thus far. Taking away team rebounds, that number jumps to 41.0%.
Tshiebwe is racking up postseason honors by the day. The major honors he’s won or is a finalist for so far include:
- NABC First-Team All-America
- Associated Press First-Team All-America
- Sporting News First-Team All-America
- NABC All-District 20 First Team
- Southeastern Conference Player of the Year (coaches/media)
- All-SEC First Team (coaches/media)
- All-SEC Defensive Team (coaches)
- USBWA IV Player of the Year
- USBWA IV All-District Team
- The Athletic’s National Player of the Year
- Sports Illustrated First-Team All-American
- The Field of 68 National Player of the Year
- The Field of 68 First-Team All-America
- College Hoops Today National Player of the Year
- USA Today SEC Player of the Year
- USA Today First-Team All-SEC unanimous selection
