The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has announced that Kentucky senior forward Oscar Tshiebwe is among the five finalists being considered for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, which recognizes the nation’s best center. The other finalists include Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton), Armando Bacot (North Carolina), Zach Edey (Purdue), and Adama Sanogo (UConn).
Fans can participate in Fan Voting, presented by Dell Technologies, starting today on hoophallawards.com to support their favorite player. The fans that vote get their vote heard by having their vote count as one committee vote during the process.
Later this month, the finalists will be presented to both Abdul-Jabbar and the selection committee of the Hall of Fame. The Selection Committee for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award consists of top men’s college basketball personnel, including media members, head coaches, sports information directors, and Hall of Famers.
The winner of the 2023 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award will be announced on a yet-to-be-determined date, along with the other four members of the Men’s Starting Five. Additional awards being presented include the Bob Cousy Award (Point Guard), Jerry West Award (Shooting Guard), Julius Erving Award (Small Forward), and the Karl Malone Award (Power Forward), in addition to the Women’s Starting Five.
Tshiebwe is not only averaging a double-double this season but is also breaking records in the process. He is leading the country for the second straight year with 13.1 rebounds per contest and has a team-best 16.4 points per game. He has tallied six 20-point, 15-rebound games this season, in addition to seven such games last season. He has 13 of the 55 such games by SEC players in the last 10 seasons.
With only 63 games played for Kentucky, Tshiebwe is currently ranked eighth in program history with 894 rebounds and has earned a double-double in 46 of those games, positioning him third in program history, behind only Dan Issel (64) and Cotton Nash (48).
Tshiebwe has become the 61st player in program history to score more than 1,000 points in his career, currently ranking 52nd overall with 1,065.Just two Wildcats have scored more than Tshiebwe’s 1,065 points in just two seasons with the Cats – Rex Chapman (1,073) and Bill Spivey (1,213).
Tshiebwe joins Paul Millsap and Kenneth Faried as the only players since the 1996-97 season to average 12 rebounds per game for their career, averaging 12.1 rebounds per game. He leads the country in rebounds per game and ranks second in total rebounds (379), missing only two games due to a knee procedure at the beginning of the season.
In one of the best individual performances of the season, Tshiebwe scored a career-high 37 points and added 24 rebounds in a home victory against Georgia on Jan. 17. Since 1976, it was the initial game where a Wildcat recorded 35 points and 20 rebounds, and it’s only the fifth occurrence of such a game in program history.
Tshiebwe has been racking up postseason honors by the day, including being named Sporting News Third-Team All-America, a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar finalist, All-SEC First Team (coaches), a John R. Wooden Award finalist, and a Naismith Player of the Year finalist. He is also on the Oscar Robertson Trophy late-season watchlist.
Despite all the accolades, Tshiebwe still has yet to show up on any NBA mock draft boards for 2023.
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