Oscar Tshiebwe named AP First Team All-American, Naismith Defensive POY finalist

Add two more honors to Oscar Tshiebwe‘s growing list of accolades. Oscar was just named First Team All-American by the Associated Press and a finalist for the Naismith Men’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

Also on the AP’s First Team: Keegan Murray (Iowa), Kofi Cockburn (Illinois), Johnny Davis (Wisconsin), and Ochai Agbaji (Kansas). The AP honor is Oscar’s second of the four the NCAA uses for its consensus All-America teams. Last week, he was named First Team All-American by The Sporting News, along with National Player of the Year. He also needs First Team-All America honors from the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) to be a consensus pick. This morning, he was named All-District 20 First Team by the NABC, getting him one step closer.

Oscar is the 12th player under John Calipari to earn All-America honors by one of the four major organizations. He joins John Wall (2010), DeMarcus Cousins (2010), Anthony Davis (2012), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (2012), Julius Randle (2014), Willie Cauley-Stein (2015), Karl-Anthony Towns (2015), Tyler Ulis (2016), Jamal Murray (2016), Malik Monk (2017) and Washington (2019) in earning All-America distinction by either the Sporting News, AP, USBWA or the NABC. He is the 56th player overall in program history to earn the All-America distinction.

The other three finalists for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award are Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren, Auburn’s Walker Kessler, and Duke’s Mark Williams. The winner will be announced on April 3. No Kentucky player has ever won the award, which has been around since 2018.

Oscar Tshiebwe’s Historic Season in Lexington

By now, you are familiar with Oscar’s incredible stats. He leads the country in rebounds per game (15.1), offensive rebounds per game (5.3), double-doubles (27), and defensive rebounding percentage (34.6%). He also leads Kentucky in scoring (17.0), steals (1.8), blocks (1.6), and field-goal percentage (60.2%). He’s the only major conference player in the country averaging at least 1.6 steals and 1.6 blocks per game.

On Saturday vs. Tennessee, Oscar recorded his 27th double-double of the season, which broke Dan Issel’s Kentucky single-season record of 26 set back in 1969-70. He trails Navy’s David Robinson’s single-season record of 31 by just five which was set in 1985-86. His streak of 15 straight double-doubles is the longest since complete game-by-game rebounding records were kept dating back to 1969.

Oscar is looking to become the first Division I player to average at least 15.0 points per game and at least 15.0 rebounds per game since Drake’s Lewis Lloyd and Alcorn State’s Larry Smith each did during the 1979-80 season. His five 20+ rebounding games tie Blake Griffin and Tim Duncan for the most by a major-conference player since 1996-97. Currently, he has 499 rebounds on the season, the third most in Kentucky history and the best by a Kentucky Wildcat since 1952.

Kentucky Single-Season Rebounding Leaders

Rank	Name	Season	Games	Rebounds
1	Bill Spivey	1950-51	33	567
2	Cliff Hagan	1951-52	32	528
3	Oscar Tshiebwe	2021-22	33	499
4	Bob Burrow	1954-55	26	459
5	Frank Ramsey	1950-51	34	434
6	Julius Randle	2013-14	40	417
7	Anthony Davis	2011-12	40	415
8	Frank Ramsey	1951-52	32	383
9	Dan Issel	1968-69	28	381
10	Ed Beck	1956-57	27	380

With potentially six games left, here’s what Oscar would need to average to tie Bill Spivey’s school record:

• One Game (First Round): 68.0 rpg
• Two Games (Second Round): 34.0 rpg
• Three Games (Sweet 16): 22.7 rpg
• Four Games (Elite Eight): 17.0 rpg
• Five Games (Final Four): 13.6 rpg
• Six Games (National Championship): 11.3 rpg

Oscar Tshiebwe’s Postseason Awards/Honors to date

• Associated Press All-America Team
• Sporting News First-Team All-America
• NABC All-District 20 First Team
• Southeastern Conference Player of the Year (coaches/media)
• All-SEC First Team (coaches/media)
• All-SEC Defensive Team (coaches)
• Sports Illustrated First-Team All-American
• The Field of 68 National Player of the Year
• The Field of 68 First-Team All-America
• College Hoops Today National Player of the Year
• USA Today SEC Player of the Year
• USA Today First-Team All-SEC unanimous selection