Oscar Tshiebwe rediscovering his National Player of the Year confidence

Not even a full month ago, for the first time in his Kentucky career, Oscar Tshiebwe looked human — anything but like a machine.

In back-to-back outings against Florida (a tight win on Feb. 4) and Arkansas (a tough loss on Feb. 7), the reigning national player of the year looked like a shell of himself. Tshiebwe, who had become known as a walking double-double, combined for just 11 points across those two outings. Florida’s seven-foot big man, Colin Castleton, was especially unforgiving against Tshiebwe.

It was strange to see a robotic-like player such as Tshiebwe struggle so heavily after playing so well for so long. Was his preseason knee surgery still bothering him? Were opposing defenses beginning to figure him out? Was his confidence waning?

In this case, all three were partially true. Head coach John Calipari has been outspoken all season about Tshiebwe’s early return from that minor surgery and how the 260-pounder needed extra time to return to full strength. Opposing defenses were indeed game-planning for him in effective ways, bringing double- and triple-teams before he could even establish himself in the post or position himself for a rebound.

Those two put together clearly took a chunk out of confidence.

But Tshiebwe, Calipari, and the Kentucky coaching staff have found ways to curtail that. The 6-foot-9 center has worked himself back into form. Calipari has moved him to different areas of the floor on offense, letting him operate from the high post where he can take his defenders off the dribble and more cleanly find his teammates. Over his last five games now, Tshiebwe has looked about as close to the 2021-22 National Player of the Year that we’ve seen all season.

“Oscar, can you see he’s getting his confidence back?” Calipari asked during his postgame press conference.

Tshiebwe was the star during Kentucky’s 86-54 drumming of the Auburn Tigers on Saturday afternoon. He finished with a game-high 22 points (on 8-10 shooting) to go along with 17 rebounds, two steals, and one block in 36 minutes of action. He had a double-double by halftime, moving him into third on the program’s all-time double-double list. Outside of the first five minutes, Tshiebwe had his way with Auburn’s big man Johni Broome, who produced just three points on 0-4 shooting in the second half.

Tshiebwe knew he had a mismatch against the Morehead State transfer, and he took full advantage of it.

“I knew their big, he could not guard me,” Tshiebwe said of Broome. “I catch the ball, open up, one-on-one he can’t guard me. I’m too fast.”

Over his last five outings, Tshiebwe is playing like a perennial player of the year candidate once again. He’s averaging 20.2 points and 10.6 rebounds per game during that stretch, shooting 65.5 percent from the field and 29-35 (82.9 percent) from the free-throw line. The confidence is back, and so are Kentucky’s winning ways. Tshiebwe is looking like a machine once again and the timing couldn’t be more perfect for the ‘Cats.

“We need to enjoy what he’s doing because it’s just not normal,” Calipari said. “He’s doing some stuff that’s outrageous.”