The first real glimpse of Oscar Tshiebwe, the reigning National Player of the Year, appeared inside Rupp Arena on Saturday afternoon, as he took full control en route to a 69-59 win over the Yale Bulldogs.
In what was the 33rd double-double of his Wildcat career, Tshiebwe had 28 points and 12 rebounds. After scoring just six of those points in the first half, he ripped through the Bulldogs’ inside defense, exploding for 22 in the second period.
Head coach John Calipari talked about what changed with the big man from the first to the second half after the win:
“In the first half, when I had shots, I was passing them. Score the ball, they can’t guard you. I told the other guys, again, we have to throw the ball at him. You’re driving and he’s in the middle wide open, shoot him the ball”.
He was able to create a much-needed separation down the stretch, scoring 16 of the UK’s 20 points in the second half. Yale would score just 32 points as a team in the last 20 minutes.
“We were trying to duplicate him, he’s a big, strong player there,” Yale head coach James Jones said of Tshiebwe. “We almost fouled him down there and then forced him to take the ball out of bounds because we just couldn’t defend under the basket, one on one.”
The Bulldogs struggled and remained respectable, but Jones’s team had no real answer for Tshiebwe, especially as the game got longer. He made 13 of 18 shooting attempts, five of his 12 rebounds reached the offensive glass and he also had two assists, two blocks and two steals.
Calipari put it simply after the win:
“We have an advantage, and the kid’s name is Oscar Tshiebwe. You have to throw it at him. If you’re driving and he’s open, don’t shoot, throw him. The crazy thing is, if he can.” If you shoot him, he’ll shoot it back at you, which he does.”
There was something of a revelation for the Cats in the locker room at halftime. Yale played hard and hard, holding the deficit to just six points at half-time. Tshiebwe was a presence, sure, but the clear advantage was nowhere to be seen.
How do you fix that?
Well, just give him the basketball and the rest will take care of itself.
“Our team needed that. We needed that,” Tshiebwe said. “I told them to give me the ball and if they double me, I’ll kick it and if they don’t double me on the court, I don’t think there are many people who can stop me, so our team threw the ball to me.” .
What works in UK’s favor is the fact that Tshiebwe is far from the only option that can hurt you offensively. Even when it’s cooking low, as a defender you have to tire of the other threats that the Cats have around the perimeter.
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Sahvir Wheeler and Antonio Reeves each benefited from the extra spotlight on Tshiebwe, as each guard scored 10 points.
“At the end of the day, I think in basketball, you have to decide what you’re going to do. Are you going to let Oscar score every time or are you going to let the guys who can make some shots make shots? It’s kind of hard, you have to pick your poison,” Wheeler said. “I think in the first half, it took us a minute to realize that. But once we got it going, honestly, when he got it going, we kept pitching it and he catapulted our offense. He made some explosive plays.”
That next level in Tshiebwe’s game was a welcome sight for Big Blue Nation. While he’s been fine in his return from knee surgery in October, he’s been lacking that extra oomph.
Shots hadn’t landed as frequently and the backboards weren’t being battered like Rupp Arena’s have become accustomed to. Part of that stems from the fact that Tshiebwe has yet to achieve the “100 percent” moniker.
On his radio call-in show this week, Calipari mentioned that the big man was “around 85 per cent” while noting that his physical condition was “probably a little off.”
Collecting 28 points in 38 minutes of playing time on 85 percent would be pretty impressive, but Tshiebwe thinks he might be even closer to peak strength than his head coach indicated:
“I think I jumped to 95 percent,” he joked. “We are just working and it takes a long time. I had never had an injury before and never thought too much about my knee,” she said.
The knee procedure has provided a very real mental hurdle for Tshiebwe. The first time dealing with an injury of that nature it is daunting to overcome, even if the pain has almost completely subsided.
Now, with seven games under his belt and an All-American-style performance to boot, some of those nerves have mounted.
“I really had to think about: I could jump, I could do something, it could happen again, but now, my mind is clear, I don’t think about it anymore, I’m just jumping.”
Tshiebwe worked his way up to one of the best performances of his college career on Saturday, an exquisite sign for Calipari and Kentucky to move on.
For more on the win over the Bulldogs, click here.
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Source: news.google.com