John Calipari explains how Charles Bediako frustrated Oscar Tshiebwe

Oscar Tshiebwe did not play like the reigning National Player of the Year, struggling against Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Charles Bediako was the one defending Tshiebwe, having one of the better performances of the season. Frustration was there for both the star center and head coach John Calipari.

Saturday was not the first instance of Tshiebwe struggling against Bediako. “Rattled” was the word used by Calipari, especially down low on the block.

“He was fading away on some of his stuff,” Calipari said. “And that gave Bediako a chance to block shots instead of going through him. And this kid has bothered him in the past. He’s seven foot, he’s long. I thought they collapsed and we needed to kick out but we got rattled. He got rattled.

“There’s a bunch of guys who got rattled in the game. Even in the second half when we opened it up — lets go dribble drive, straight. We weren’t able to move and get guys where we needed to go.”

Oscar Tshiebwe is usually a walking double-double, especially on the glass. Alabama held him to six rebounds and just four points on one of seven shooting. His struggles were a common theme of everyone on the Kentucky team, being the largest loss against Alabama in series history with 26 points.

Something is just different about Tshiebwe’s start to the 2022-2023 season according to Calipari. He is not having as much ease rebounding and going up against teams such as Alabama is not helping the cause.

“There were rebounds he got last year that — didn’t get,” Calipari said. “Many of them, he was rebounding with one hand. These guys are too big and they’re active.

“I mean, we were up on the rebounds at halftime. And then you look around and my guess is the out rebounded us. We missed enough shots that they could rebound.”

Calipari was slightly off, with Kentucky winning the rebounding battle by four. However, he was correct about missing a ton of shots, shooting just under 29% from the field and 25% from the three point line. Continued offensive struggles for Calipari’s team.

As for Tshiebwe, he will have the opportunity to get back on the right track on Tuesday night. Kentucky is facing off against South Carolina in a near must win game at home. He will want to be getting back to his dominant self and help the Wildcats get back to .500 in SEC play.