Oscar Tshiebwe earns USBWA National Player of the Week honors

A Machine, a Beast, a fan-favorite, call him whatever you want. Just make sure you put National Player of the Year candidate in front of it…

Oscar Tshiebwe, the star center for Kentucky Men’s Basketball, is coming off one of the all-time greatest performances in Wildcat history. He hauled in 28 rebounds in a 35-point win over Western Kentucky last week, breaking the Rupp Arena rebounding record along the way, which was previously held by Shaquille O’Neal.

WKU as an entire team finished with just 27 rebounds. Tshiebwe also added 14 points for his ninth double-double of the season, along with three steals, to his stat line

As a result of his efforts, the 6-foot-9 junior is being recognized as the nation’s top player from the most recent week of games. On Tuesday afternoon, it was announced by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association that Tshiebwe has been named the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week.

Oscar, meet Oscar 🤝@Oscartshiebwe34 named @USBWA Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week.

📝 https://t.co/PcWPwwHVKi pic.twitter.com/zi9QbGI9i0

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) December 28, 2021

Earlier this week, Tshiebwe was also tabbed as the National Player of the Week by both Andy Katz (March Madness) and Jay Bilas (ESPN). He was even named the Southeastern Conference’s Co-Player of the Week.

Tshiebwe is the first Kentucky player named the USBWA National Player of the Week since Nick Richards in Dec. 2019. Former Wildcats PJ Washington (2018-19), Kevin Knox (2017-18), Malik Monk (2016-17), Julius Randle (2013-14), and Doron Lamb (2010-11) have also received this honor. Anthony Davis was even named the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Year honor in 2012.

While all of this is a great accomplishment for Tshiebwe, none of it compares to him being the first person named “Oscar” to receive the weekly Oscar Robertson award.

Below is more information on the honor, courtesy of UK Athletics.

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The Oscar Robertson Player of the Week honor culminates with the Oscar Robertson Trophy, awarded to the national player of the Year by the USBWA at the end of the season. It bears the name and image of Cincinnati Hall of Famer and two-time USBWA Player of the Year Oscar Robertson. It is the nation’s oldest player of the year award and the only one named after a former player. Robertson was the first NBA player to average a triple-double, was an NBA champion (1971) and NBA MVP (1964) and was a two-time USBWA College Player of the Year selection (1959, 1960).

Tshiebwe is currently leading the Wildcats in points per game (16.1), rebounds per game (15.5), blocks per game (1.6) and field-goal percentage (64.9%). Since the 1978-79 season, only four Wildcats have led the team in those four categories (minimum 130 field-goal attempts) in a single season (Kenny Walker in 1984-85 and 1985-86, Jamaal Magloire in 1999-2000, Randolph Morris in 2006-07, and Anthony Davis in 2011-12).
 
The Wildcats open league play this week as Missouri visits Rupp Arena on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The game will air live on SEC Network. Tickets in the 200 level are available for the game with full proceeds going to the American Red Cross to benefit the Kentucky United tornado disaster relief funds. Those tickets can be purchased here.