Oscar Tshiebwe voted SEC Player of the Year by Coaches; TyTy Washington, Sahvir Wheeler Second Team

Another accolade for Oscar Tshiebwe, and this is a big one. Oscar was named SEC Player of the Year by the league’s coaches. He is also an All-SEC First Team selection and member of the All-Defensive Team. Oscar is the 10th player in Kentucky history to win the coaches’ SEC Player of the Year award and the fifth in 13 seasons under John Calipari (six counting Malik Monk’s AP honor in 2017).

TyTy Washington earned All-SEC Second Team and All-Freshman Team honors, while Sahvir Wheeler also made the All-SEC Second Team. With three Wildcats on the coaches’ All-SEC teams, Calipari has now coached 32 players (33 total honors) who have earned All-SEC first- or second-team accolades. At least one player has been named to the All-SEC Freshman Team in each of Calipari’s 13 seasons, including 29 total. Eleven players have earned 13 SEC All-Defensive honors under Calipari’s watch.

Auburn’s Bruce Pearl was named SEC Coach of the Year; Vanderbilt’s Jordan Wright earned SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year; Auburn’s Jabari Smith was tabbed SEC Freshman of the Year, Auburn’s Walker Kessler was named Defensive Player of the Year and LSU’s Tari Eason was voted SEC Sixth Man of the Year.

Coaches’ SEC Awards

First Team

JD Notae, Arkansas
Jaylin Williams, Arkansas
Walker Kessler, Auburn
Jabari Smith, Auburn
Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
Tari Eason, LSU
Iverson Molinar, Mississippi State
Santiago Vescovi, Tennessee
Scotty Pippen Jr., Vanderbilt

Second Team

Jaden Shackelford, Alabama
Colin Castleton, Florida
TyTy Washington Jr., Kentucky
Sahvir Wheeler, Kentucky
Darius Days, LSU
Kobe Brown, Missouri
Kennedy Chandler, Tennessee
Quenton Jackson, Texas A&M

All-Freshman Team

Charles Bediako, Alabama
JD Davison, Alabama
Jabari Smith, Auburn
TyTy Washington Jr., Kentucky
Brandon Murray, LSU
Devin Carter, South Carolina
Kennedy Chandler, Tennessee
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee

All-Defensive Team

Keon Ellis, Alabama
Jaylin Williams, Arkansas
Walker Kessler, Auburn
Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee
 
Coach of the Year: Bruce Pearl, Auburn
Player of the Year: Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Jordan Wright, Vanderbilt
Freshman of the Year: Jabari Smith, Auburn
Sixth-Man of the Year: Tari Eason, LSU
Defensive Player of the Year: Walker Kessler, Auburn

Oscar in line for National Player of the Year

Oscar leads Kentucky in scoring (17.3), rebounding (15.3), steals (1.9), and blocks (1.5). His 15.3 rebounds per game lead the nation and he’s second nationally in double-doubles with 25. One more and he ties Kentucky’s record of 26, set by Dan Issel in 1969-70. He is looking to become the first Division I player to average at least 15.0 points 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, and the first major-conference player to average at least 16.0 points and at least 15.0 rebounds for a season since Bill Walton at UCLA in 1972-73. He would be the first Wildcat to do it since Bob Burrow tallied 19.1 points and 17.7 rebounds per game in 1954-55.

Keeping up with Oscar’s accolades is a daily exercise at this point. Yesterday, he was named First Team All-American by The Sporting News, one of four such honors needed to be a consensus All-American. Today, he was also named First Team All-American by Sports Illustrated. Both were unanimous selections. Here are the major honors Oscar’s won or is a finalist for so far:

• Sporting News First-Team All-America
• Sports Illustrated First-Team All-America
• 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
• John R. Wooden Award finalist
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award Final Five
• Naismith Defensive Player of the Year semifinalist
• SEC Player of the Year (Coaches)