ESPN ranks Oscar Tshiebwe No. 3 player in men's college basketball

Oscar Tshiebwe’s National Player of the Year campaign is officially underway. The Kentucky center is averaging 29.5 points and 15 rebounds over his last two games, punctuating what has been an incredible individual run halfway through the regular season.

To the Big Blue Nation, Tshiebwe has been a potential NPOY candidate for weeks now, but the national media is now starting to pick up on his dominating performances. Over at ESPN, John Gasaway ranked the Top 25 men’s college basketball players in the country right now. Tshiebwe came in ranked No. 3.

Presenting the top 25 players in the nation, 2.0.

Not only is there a new No. 1, he wasn’t even in the last top 25.

Embrace the 2022.https://t.co/fwKBnnvsQU

— John Gasaway (@JohnGasaway) January 12, 2022

Here’s what Gasaway had to say about Tshiebwe.

3. Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky Wildcats

Tshiebwe as an individual has a higher offensive rebound percentage than 30 or so entire Division I teams, including NCAA tournament hopefuls like Colorado State and Minnesota. He leads the nation in both offensive and defensive rebound rates at KenPom, and the 6-foot-9 junior could become the first player in the modern era to average a 15-15 double-double for an entire season. In a not atypical effort during Kentucky’s win over Georgia last weekend, Tshiebwe rang up 29 points to go along with 17 boards. He has yet to foul out as a Wildcat, and he’s playing more minutes than he did as a freshman during his only full season at West Virginia. Every minute Tshiebwe’s on the floor translates into diminished rebounding at both ends of the floor for the opponent.

via John Gasaway, ESPN

Tshiebwe has somehow made 20-point, 15-rebound games an afterthought. It’s tough to say anything about him that hasn’t already been said 100 times over. Tshiebwe is breaking decade-old records seemingly every game. KenPom has him ranked No. 2 in its National Player of the Year race–and has for a couple of weeks now.

Coming in ahead of UK’s historically great big man are Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis at No. 1 and Ilinois’ Kofi Cockburn at No. 2, the latter of which was once considered a Kentucky target during the offseason. Davis, on the other hand, has gone from a bench player last season to averaging over 22 points per game this year.

Kansas’ Ochai Agbaji and Arizona’s Bennedict Mathurin came in ranked No. 4 and 5, respectively. Other notable names among the Top 25 are Auburn freshman Jabari Smith (No. 13), Duke freshman Paolo Banchero (No. 16), and Auburn’s Walker Kessler (No. 25).