By Tomas: In the 2022-2023 Kentucky basketball season I think it’s important that we look back at the team and how they performed and what we can look forward to from them in 2023-2024. First up is Oscar Tshiebwe.
Season Review
Oscar came into the season as the reigning NPOY and collecting just about every award imaginable. After the loss to St. Peter’s and the Shaedon Sharpe Debacle Oscar returning was a light in the darkness and provided legitimate hope for Kentucky fans. Safe to say things started off rocky as Oscar picked up an injury and was forced into surgery a few weeks before the season started. I personally think that surgery was a lot bigger deal than anyone in the program admitted at the time as Oscar returned to the court stiff and clearly not on the same page as the rest of the team. Despite that Oscar’s production remained consistent but I don’t think we saw the best of Oscar until around mid-February. His defense caused plenty of consternation and it was certainly a problem early in conference play. Not shockingly it did improve as Oscar looked far more mobile as he got further away from his surgery.
Season Highlight
Oscar at his best was the 2nd half against Georgia in Rupp Arena. Kentucky’s season was on the ropes but they were coming off the win down in Knoxville and a loss to Georgia at home would have knocked Kentucky right back out of the tournament. Oscar put the team on his back and finished with an astonishing 37 points and 24 rebounds.
Honorable mention here is Oscar’s two tournament games. He went out on his shield and broke an NCAA record along the way. Specifically in the 2nd half of the Providence game the Friars were making a run and cut the lead to 4; Oscar responded with a putback dunk and then a steal, OREB off his own miss, and then wrap-around assist to push the lead back out to 8 and basically ending the game. Against Kansas State Oscar was literally fighting off 3-4 bodies on every rebound and every attempt at the rim and still finished with 25 and 18.
Season Lowlight
Lowlight for me is the Arkansas game in Rupp. Kentucky had won 6 of 7 games and the positivity was flowing. The Razorbacks came in and absolutely punked Kentucky but specifically Oscar. They made it a point to get under his skin by putting WWE moves on him in the paint (SEC officials allowed this consistently all season) and get in his head with trash talk. The length of the Razorback frontline also rattled him and he was completely ineffective and Kentucky lost all momentum on the season.
Honorable mention here is obviously the Alabama game where Nate Oats openly bragged (to the point of being a little disrespectful for a HC to openly talk about a player like that) about exposing Oscar in ball-screens. Oscar himself admitted that he wasn’t fully in the game because of it and personally I believe the psychological effect of this game probably lingered and impacted Kentucky in the South Carolina game a few days later.
2023-2024 Outlook
Oscar still has one year of eligibility due to the NCAA COVID rule. I don’t anticipate Oscar using that year and I expect him to start his pro journey. Frankly, it’s probably better for all parties that he does move on. Oscar will turn 24 in November and his off-court pursuits are pretty well known (which is awesome and I hope he keeps it up) and I’m not sure he jives with the shift to youth that is coming next year. Most importantly I’m not sure he fits personnel wise, his defensive issues are well known and with Bradshaw coming and Ugo staying Kentucky has plenty of true C’s and they need to be on the floor for rim protection.
I am grateful what Oscar gave to the program and I look forward to rooting him on his pro-journey. He’s one of the best rebounders in CBB history and when eligible he will almost certainly have his name in the rafters. It hurts that he didn’t get to go out on a better note because Oscar the person deserved all the good things and I hope BBN will be able to say thank you at some point down the road.
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