Oscar Tshiebwe wants to wear No. 9 this season, but the NCAA won't let him

The foundation of the NCAA is built on the back of laws that nobody quite understands. But every now and then, we’ll stumble upon a rule that is even more outdated than the NCAA itself.

According to Rule 1, Section 22, Article 7, Clause b. 2 of the updated NCAA rulebook, all men’s basketball players are prevented from wearing any jersey number with numerals of 6, 7, 8, or 9. That means no one can wear jersey numbers such as No. 6, No. 17, No. 28, No. 72, and so on. This news upset Oscar Tshiebwe, the reigning National Player of the Year who returned to Kentucky for a senior season.

You see, Tshiebwe was hoping to wear No. 9 on his jersey for the 2022-23 season. His main goal this year is to help lead Kentucky to the program’s ninth national title.

“We all got one goal, it’s for number nine,” Tshiebwe said on Thursday during a media press conference. “I came back for one reason and I hope God will fulfill our purpose. Before I leave here — I don’t just come in, pick up my trophy, and go home… Number nine, that’s my purpose.”

As a constant reminder of his goal, Tshiebwe said he wanted to sport the No. 9 throughout the season. Unfortunately, the NCAA prohibits it.

“Why did the NCAA stop with number five? You cannot go up,” Tshiebwe added. “I was trying to get number nine, to wear number nine, just to remember this is my number for this year, I have a purpose for this number but they told me I can’t wear number nine. The numbers stop at five. I was like wow this is crazy.”

So why did the NCAA make this a rule? Well, it has to do with referee hand signals. The reasoning behind it is so that refs can easily communicate with the scorer’s tables in order to identify which player is being tagged with a foul. For example, the No. 6 could be confused with No. 51, since you need two hands to hold up either number.

According to an article by the New York Times, it indicates this rule could have been in place since at least the 1960s. For those with a great memory, former UK great Cliff Hagan (1950-54) has his No. 6 jersey retired, as does Lou Tsioropoulos (1950-54) and his No. 16 jersey. One-time Wildcat All-Americans Bill Spivey (1950-52; No. 77) and Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones (1945-49; No. 27) also wore numbers that would not qualify in today’s game. Since the late 50s, there haven’t been many Kentucky jerseys with numerals of 6, 7, 8, or 9.

However, as the same article points out, the NBA does not have the same issue with its referees, as players are free to pick from any jersey number that isn’t already retired by the franchise. The NCAA could adopt this same rule (there are plenty of cameras at every game for the exact reason of making sure mixups/mistakes don’t occur), but it’s just another obscure rule that will continue to exist because it always has.

It looks like Tshiebwe will have to find something else to fuel him towards a national title, which shouldn’t be much of an issue for the always-hungry big man.