KSR Today: It's Oscar TshiebDAY!

Good morning, folks! Apparently, today is Oscar TshiebDAY here on the internet. So it’s time to celebrate.

After playing the best game of his college career on Tuesday night, Kentucky’s reigning national player of the year, Oscar Tshiebwe, is being honored a little extra today. Tshiebwe exploded for 37 points and 24 rebounds in a win over Georgia — the first such stat line for a Wildcat since Mike Phillips in 1976 — which prompted some fans online to bring more attention to the big man’s all-around dominance. As a result, we now have Oscar TshiebDAY, which the Kentucky men’s basketball social media accounts have been embracing. Seriously, just check out how many people are talking about it — the memes are out in full force.

Admittedly, Tshiebwe’s skills sometimes can be taken for granted. Anything short of 15 points and 15 rebounds almost feels like a down night for him at this stage. It took one of the single greatest individual performances in program history for him to remind everyone just how special he is. The preseason knee surgery finally appears to be behind him and he’s beginning to live in the gym. Tshiebwe is up to averages of 17.3 points and 13.8 rebounds this season while shooting 58 percent from the field.

He’s owning fools every time down the floor.

With Kentucky not playing again until Saturday at home against Texas A&M, today is a perfect day to honor and celebrate what Tshiebwe has already done for this program.

As a side note, we’re expecting to hear from a couple of the Kentucky players for a media opportunity this afternoon. My guess is Tshiebwe will be one of them. We’ll have plenty of content from that coming to the site later in the day.

Basketball Benny lineup making noise

The lineup Kentucky fans have been clamoring for since the start of the 2022-23 season isn’t just working, it’s shattering the efficiency charts. In fact, it’s the most efficient lineup one through five in college basketball by a significant margin.

Crunching the numbers following the Wildcats’ 85-71 win over Georgia on Tuesday, national analytics expert Evan Miyakawa found that the lineup of Cason Wallace, Antonio Reeves, CJ Fredrick, Jacob Toppin, and Oscar Tshiebwe graded out as the best lineup in basketball with an adjusted team efficiency margin of 86.0.

No other school had a lineup with an efficiency margin greater than 70.0 (LSU). In fact, only three total lineups graded out higher than 60.0, with Kansas (66.6) having the other.

The lineup that has changed Kentucky's season now has the highest Adjusted Team Efficiency Margin in the entire country for all D1 lineups (60+ possessions at https://t.co/cegyfz96ax).

In fact, Wallace/Reeves/Fredrick/Toppin/Oscar has the highest mark of any lineup since 2019-20 pic.twitter.com/VVBrPMmz43

— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) January 18, 2023

‘Cats trending in right direction

After beating the Georgia Bulldogs on Tuesday night 85-71, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi now has the Wildcats back in the field of 68 according to his most recent Bracketology update. Lunardi slots Kentucky as the final team among the “Last Four In” group, projecting the ‘Cats as 12-seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

Kentucky is now up to No. 39 in the NET rankings after picking up its fourth Quad 3 win of the season against Georgia. Thanks to a season-changing victory on the road over Tennessee this past weekend, UK is now 1-5 against Quad 1 opponents, but will surely need more to boost its postseason chances.

Lunardi previously had Kentucky among the “First Four Out” group before and after the win over the Volunteers. But taking down a solid Georgia team has the ‘Cats back in good standing with the experts.

pic.twitter.com/J1UDQwvPgt

— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) January 18, 2023

Hayes Johnson on the way to UK?

Vince Marrow let the #BBN know on Tuesday that he loves “recruiting in our backyard.” Who was he visiting? None other than one of Kentucky’s top-ranked players in the 2024 recruiting class, Hayes Johnson — the goose-hunting KSR caller.

Johnson tells KSR he spent time Tuesday with the Big Dog and Mark Stoops in Taylor County. After they made the trip down the Bluegrass Parkway, Johnson will return the favor with an unofficial visit to Lexington next weekend for Kentucky’s Junior Day, which is expected to be a star-studded affair.

A 6-foot-3, 295-pound offensive lineman, Hayes Johnson is considered the top-ranked junior in the state of Kentucky by Rivals and 247 Sports. A long-time Kentucky fan, he unofficially visited last spring and attended two games in the fall. The Wildcats were the first to offer him a scholarship. He also has visited Alabama and has offers from Louisville, Tennessee, Michigan State, Baylor, and Cincinnati.

Shortly after Tuesday’s meetup went down, Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports logged a pick in favor of Johnson landing at UK.

11 Personnel talks transfer portal

The transfer portal hysteria is coming to an end, for now. Once the clock struck midnight, college football players were no longer able to enter the portal and receive a free year of immediate eligibility. They’ll have to wait until May to receive that access again. In the meantime, players that are already in the transfer portal can find a new home, although at most schools, including Kentucky, they’ll be unable to enroll for the spring semester.

KSR’s Nick Roush and Adam Luckett broke down all of the additions and shared the biggest surprises while evaluating Kentucky’s 2022-23 transfer portal efforts.

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