Opposing teams are picking on Oscar Tshiebwe's defense

For the second game in a row, an opposing head coach pointed to Oscar Tshiebwe‘s defense as a highlighted focus for his team’s offensive approach. In particular, both coaches have mentioned Tshiebwe’s inability to properly and consistently defend ball screens in halfcourt settings.

The first instance of this came following Kentucky’s embarrassing road loss to Alabama over the weekend when Tshiebwe was essentially played off the floor in the opening minutes after giving up several baskets right at the rim, a result of poor individual defense and even worse team communication. UK head coach John Calipari had no choice but to pull Tshiebwe from the lineup early on as the reigning national player of the year finished with just four points and six rebounds in 23 minutes of action — easily his worst performance in a Kentucky jersey to date.

Alabama specifically made it a point to attack Tshiebwe on defense and it resulted in the most lopsided loss to the Crimson Tide in program history.

“I thought part of guarding Tshiebwe too was we decided to attack him early in ball screens,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said after the Crimson Tide beat Kentucky 78-52 on Saturday. “I don’t think he’s very good guarding ball screens. We got behind him I think three times right out of the gate… We’ve seen him mess up a lot of ball screen coverages in scouting them so we wanted to attack them in that. When we did attack, they pulled him out of the game.”

Not much changed during Tuesday night’s demoralizing loss to a bad South Carolina team. Tshiebwe was far more productive on offense this time around with 19 points and 12 rebounds while playing all 40 minutes, but his defense was once again the main target for the opposing offense.

When Gamecocks first-year head coach Lamont Paris was asked what he felt most confident about while scouting Kentucky, he also mentioned putting Tshiebwe into more ball screens, using the matchup against Alabama as the blueprint for South Carolina’s success.

“The ball screens. I wanted to try to get into the ball screens and just — it appeared in the last game that there was some, maybe a little indecision on what they wanted to do in the ball screens,” Paris said after South Carolina stunned UK in Rupp Arena, 71-68. “That’s an outsider looking in, of course. So, I wanted to get into some ball screens, we probably ran more than what we normally do. But I also wanted to have them move. I wanted to have Tshiebwe have to move and make decisions, and if they were going to switch this or if they were going to go under this or what they were going to do, so I thought the ball screens and attacking the rim was a big part of what we wanted to do.”

This isn’t a recent issue for Kentucky and Tshiebwe, either. Putting aside all of the great things he does on offense (like this jaw-dropping one-man fastbreak dunk from Tuesday, which ironically enough came as a result of him defending a pick-and-roll set), Tshiebwe’s defense has been the subject of criticism throughout most of the season. He’s often caught out of position or hasn’t been quick enough on his feet to get back into the play. What might be more concerning for the Big Blue Nation is the fact that the coaching staff knows this, but effective changes have still yet to be made.

“Let me give South Carolina credit, they played well,” Calipari said during Tuesday’s postgame press conference. “In the first half, their start and the plays they made, some straight-line drives. I mean everybody’s going at Oscar so we’ve got to figure out some stuff. We’re trying to do it different ways but we’re going to have to see what we do to keep people from running downhill. Because that’s not — we’re going to have to figure it out.”

Finding a way to “figure it out” is much easier said than done, though. Kentucky’s defense is currently ranked 14th out of 14 among SEC teams in defensive efficiency (122.3) and three-point shooting defense (43.5 percent) during conference play, per KenPom. Whether it’s from inside the paint or beyond the arc, Tshiebwe’s defense is getting exposed and it’s leading to easy shots for opposing teams. While it’s completely unfair to place 100 percent of the defensive issues on Tshiebwe, he’s certainly one of the root causes — the tape doesn’t lie and other coaches are quickly catching on.

At this stage in the season, however, what can change? The regular season is already halfway over and the remaining schedule doesn’t exactly get any easier. Should Kentucky opt to play more zone defense in order to hide Tshiebwe under the basket? Calipari has always been reluctant to run anything other than man-to-man. When Tshiebwe was asked about what he can do differently to better defend ball screens moving forward, he didn’t exactly provide a clear answer.

“We just gotta get everything straightened out,” Tshiebwe said postgame. “Most of the time I do what they require, they ask me to do, that’s what I’m doing. We just got to get better, we gotta get better. One thing I’m asking is we just gotta fight.”

Tshiebwe and Kentucky can fight all they want, but if they’re still struggling at this stage to execute something as routine as defending a pick-and-roll, it’s tough to see how things can get better.