Oscar Tshiebwe has to prove to John Calipari his 3-point shot can be reliable

How does a reigning national player of the year improve their game the following season? In the case of Oscar Tshiebwe, it might be the ability to earn an extra point.

The Kentucky men’s basketball center was the most dominant big man in all of college basketball during the 2021-22 season. The 6-foot-9, 255-pounder broke rebounding records that hadn’t been touched in decades. He was one of just a handful of Divison I players to average at least 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals per game. And oh yeah, he shot over 60 percent from the field with an offensive arsenal that stretched from right at the rim to about 18 feet out.

But all of that still couldn’t get him high enough on NBA Draft boards to justify leaving college for the professional ranks. If Tshiebwe wants to make a giant leap in the eyes of front office executives, adding a reliable 3-point shot might do the trick. The rising senior said that he’s already been hard at work on expanding his range.

“Yes, absolutely yes (I plan to shoot threes). I’m working on it,” Tshiebwe said earlier this month. “I don’t need to go out there and hit a bunch of threes, I just need one or two in the game. Then I can stay down low and keep doing my thing.”

3️⃣4️⃣ seconds with 3️⃣4️⃣ pic.twitter.com/C7KR1zuVGf

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) July 29, 2022

Kentucky head coach John Calipari approves of the concept, saying a couple of weeks ago that Tshiebwe will need to bring something else aside from elite-level rebounding in order to reach the next level as a first-round pick. But it won’t be as simple as just taking more shots from distance — Tshiebwe has to prove throughout the offseason that he can make those shots at an above-average rate.

“We’ve seen him work tremendously hard on (his three-point shot) and I think that if he continues to work at it, I think (Calipari) will be okay with him shooting it,” Kentucky assistant coach Chin Coleman told the media on Thursday. “But he’s got to consistently make them in front of Coach Calipari in our practices, and he’s done a great job of that and he’s working hard at that. He was already a really good 17-, 18-foot free-throw extended shooter. Let’s just push it back a little bit. He’s been doing a good job of putting in the work and if he shows consistently that he can do that I think Coach Cal may let him shoot 3s, maybe.”

Across his three-year college career, Tshiebwe has attempted a total of zero three-pointers. That being said, he was an efficient and consistent jump shooter from outside the paint in ’21-22. Stepping back a few feet would not only open up more scoring options for himself, but it could spread the floor even more and create new scoring opportunities for his teammates.

So far this offseason, it sounds like Tshiebwe has made strides in his outside shot. Don’t be surprised if he opens up the Big Blue Bahamas Tour next month with a couple of triples in the first half (to go along with 10 rebounds, of course).