Jay Bilas names his leader for National Player of the Year

If Jay Bilas had to vote for the National Player of the Year today, he would select Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe.

“He’s my leader for National Player of the Year,” Bilas said on College GameDay Saturday morning. “I mean, he’s doing things that we haven’t seen in forever. He’s already had four 20-rebound games. When he gets to five — and it’s not if, it’s when — he’s gonna join Tim Duncan and Blake Griffin as the last guys to do that, and that’s a long time ago.”

Tshiebwe is currently averaging 16.5 points per game and 14.9 rebounds per game. That rebounding average just dipped below 15 during Kentucky’s 107-79 stomping of No. 22 Tennessee Saturday at Rupp Arena.

The Kentucky big man was one point shy of his 13th double-double of the season with nine points and 12 rebounds. That diminished rebounding line was, in part, due to the fact Kentucky shot lights out at 67.9 percent from the field, 61.1 percent from deep and and 95.2 percent from the charity stripe.

“Last two games [before Tennessee], he’s averaging close to 30 points a game and 15 rebounds. He’s shooting like 65 percent, he doesn’t have a single turnover,” Bilas said. “It’s ridiculous what he’s accomplished this year. He’s the nation’s leading rebounder by far.”

The two games Bilas mentioned against Georgia and Vanderbilt saw Tshiebwe combine for 59 points and 30 total rebounds, including a career-high 30-point performance in Nashville against the Commodores.

“I never had a dream about scoring 30 points in a game. It just happened,” Tshiebwe said after the Vanderbilt win. “The team, they’re helping me. They look at me down there and I showed them I can do things. I can score to help the team. I can do a lot of different things.”

Not even a month prior, Tshiebwe notched another career-high, unsurprisingly, in rebounds. Christmas came early for the West Virginia transfer against Western Kentucky on Dec. 22 as he broke Shaquille O’Neal’s Rupp Arena rebounding record of 21 midway through the second half on his way to shattering the glass for 28 boards.

If that wasn’t enough, Tshiebwe out-rebounded the entirety of WKU’s squad 28-27. He’s the first SEC player in 25 seasons to out-rebound a team single handedly.

It seems as if Bilas and the rest of the National Player of the Year voters don’t swing Tshiebwe’s way at the end of the season, it’s likely the Kentucky big man will simply go up and grab the award with two hands like he has every rebound this season.