Oscar Tshiebwe makes midseason watch list for Lute Olson Award
The college basketball world is slowly catching on to what Oscar Tshiebwe is doing at Kentucky. Tshiebwe was named to the midseason watch list for the 2022 Lute Olson Award, given annually to the top player in the sport. The junior big man is one of 30 players on the list. Earlier this month, Oscar was also tabbed to the John R. Wooden Award Midseason Top 25.
As you surely know by now, Oscar is doing incredible things this season. He leads the country in rebounds per game (15.1), offensive rebounds per game (5.3), and defensive rebounding percentage (36.0). He’s also Kentucky’s leading scorer, averaging 17.0 points per game, and ranks second nationally in double-doubles, with 12. He’s gotten 20+ rebounds in four games this season, including 28 vs. Western Kentucky, which broke the Rupp Arena record. Nobody else in the country has more than one.
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Oscar is on pace 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. Bob Burrow (1954-55) holds the Kentucky Basketball record for single-season rebounds, at 17.7 per game. While Oscar may not reach that, the last Kentucky player to average at least 14.0 rebounds per game in a season was Ed Beck in 1956-57. He’ll easily take the Calipari Era record, which belongs to Anthony Davis and Julius Randle, who both averaged 10.4 boards per game. As I wrote after his 30-point, 13-rebound performance vs. Vanderbilt, Oscar is doing extraordinary things, and the fact that it’s becoming the norm at a place like Kentucky is proof he deserves to be in the National Player of the Year conversation.
The Lute Olson Award, named for Arizona’s legendary former coach, has been around since 2010. No Kentucky players have won it, not even Anthony Davis (the committee gave it Creighton’s Doug McDermott instead). Time to change that.
2021-22 Lute Olson Award Midseason Watch List
| James Akinjo | 6-1 | Sr. | Baylor |
| Keve Aluma | 6-9 | Sr. | Virginia Tech |
| Armando Bacot | 6-10 | Jr. | North Carolina |
| Paolo Banchero | 6-10 | Fr. | Duke |
| Alex Barcello | 6-2 | Sr. | BYU |
| Christian Braun | 6-7 | Jr. | Kansas |
| Julian Champagnie | 6-8 | Jr. | St. John’s |
| Kofi Cockburn | 7-0 | Jr. | Illinois |
| Johnny Davis | 6-5 | So. | Wisconsin |
| Tari Eason | 6-8 | So. | LSU |
| Zach Edey | 7-4 | So. | Purdue |
| Collin Gillespie | 6-3 | Sr. | Villanova |
| Chet Holmgren | 7-0 | Fr. | Gonzaga |
| Jaden Ivey | 6-4 | So. | Purdue |
| Trayce Jackson-Davis | 6-9 | Jr. | Indiana |
| Johnny Juzang | 6-7 | Jr. | UCLA |
| Christian Koloko | 7-1 | So. | Arizona |
| Hyunjung Lee | 6-7 | Jr. | Davidson |
| E.J. Liddell | 6-7 | Jr. | Ohio State |
| Kenneth Lofton Jr. | 6-7 | Fr. | Louisiana Tech |
| Isaiah Mobley | 6-10 | Jr. | USC |
| Wendell Moore | 6-5 | Jr. | Duke |
| Keegan Murray | 6-8 | So, | Iowa |
| Jahvon Quinerly | 6-1 | Jr. | Alabama |
| Orlando Robinson | 7-0 | Jr. | Fresno State |
| David Roddy | 6-6 | Jr. | Colorado State |
| Jabari Smith | 6-10 | Fr. | Auburn |
| Drew Timme | 6-10 | Jr. | Gonzaga |
| Oscar Tshiebwe | 6-9 | Jr. | Kentucky |
| Alondes Williams | 6-5 | Sr. | Wake Forest |
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