Oscar Tshiebwe put in work in the gym, then put Kentucky on his back

Even John Calipari thought Oscar Tshiebwe was having a down season after his national player of the year campaign in 2021-22.

Yes, Tshiebwe has still been dominant halfway through the 2022-23 schedule, but it always felt like there was something missing from his game that he always had last year — too many missed layups, defensive breakdowns, etc. Something just looked… off with the 6-foot-9 senior. Was his knee surgery from the preseason still nagging at him? That certainly had something to do with it, but Calipari tells a slightly different side of the story — Tshiebwe wasn’t living in the gym the way he had during his historic run this time last year.

That changed about two weeks ago.

“I got on (Tshiebwe) two weeks ago. Get in that gym! That’s why you were who you were. You’re not playing like you were a year ago,” Calipari said following UK’s 85-71 win over Georgia on Tuesday night. “He’s been in there two weeks, how’s it look now?“

To answer your question, Coach: not too shabby.

Tshiebwe broke Georgia’s spirit to the tune of 37 points and 24 rebounds — a remarkable performance that only comes through Lexington every 50 or so years. He was the first Wildcat to post at least 30 points and 20 rebounds since Mike Phillips in 1976, per UK statistician Corey Price — numbers Tshiebwe exceeded with ease.

Georgia head coach Mike White hadn’t seen anything like it before. Or at least he hadn’t since Tshiebwe dropped 27 points on two separate outings last season when White was coaching at Florida.

“We had one here last year — Florida vs. Kentucky — where he was incredibly dominant,” White said. “Like unbelievably dominant, and not even this dominant. I don’t think I’ve been a part of this… He was unbelievable. Credit him and his mentality, his motor, his physical toughness, his physicality that he played with, even defensively. We didn’t match it. We didn’t match it at all.”

Whatever Tshiebwe has been doing in the gym the last two weeks, he better keep it up. He was aggressive and decisive, using a new-found layer of stamina to power up and through Georgia’s defenders planted under the rim. What used to be feeble layup attempts a few weeks ago turned into hammer dunks on top of any Bulldog who dared stand in his path.

“You know what I told him? Dunk, every, ball,” Calipari said. “Quit laying balls in just jump up, but he had to get into the gym to be that way. Now you’re seeing him be how he was a year ago. Was he that way two weeks ago? No!”

Oscar Tshiebwe was unreal tonight😳

The reigning Player of the Year finished with a career-high 37 points and 24 rebounds 🤯 @Oscartshiebwe34 pic.twitter.com/3LDE0j1W5d

— B/R Hoops (@brhoops) January 18, 2023

After a “quiet” first half by his standards of 14 points and nine rebounds on 4-11 shooting, Tshiebwe was able to find another gear in the second half while the Bulldogs ran out of gas. Kentucky trailed by eight at the intermission but outscored the Bulldogs 51-29 in the next 20 minutes.

Tshiebwe dropped 23 points and 15 rebounds on 8-9 shooting in just the second half — which would rank among his top 10 games at Kentucky on its own. He poured in the first nine points for UK out of the locker room before hitting CJ Fredrick (off an offensive rebound) for a wide-open three-pointer at the top of the key that gave the ‘Cats a 46-45 lead.

Kentucky began to cruise from there with Tshiebwe imposing his will possession after possession.

It didn’t matter if Georgia guarded him one-on-one or brought an extra defender, Tshiebwe broke it down by flying to offensive rebounds (he had 11 of them) or making the right reads. He also recorded three steals in 38 minutes played, shooting 13-18 from the charity stripe. Simply put, Georgia had zero answers to one of the toughest problems in all of college basketball.

“Once he got it and we were solo, he got what he wanted. When we doubled him and he kicked it out, it would lead to someone else shooting the ball and he went and got it off missed free throws, off missed field goals, my goodness,” Coach White said. “He was unbelievable.”

Due to his preseason knee surgery, it’s taken more time than fans, coaches, and even Tshiebwe himself would have liked for him to get back to playing like he did against Georgia on Tuesday night. He had to take it a bit slow early in the season for the sake of preventing a hiccup in his rehab process. Running and jumping were suddenly tougher tasks for him than they had been during the team’s summer trip to the Bahamas.

Even up until a couple of weeks ago, Tshiebwe didn’t have the same kind of lift in his legs that he does now. As Calipari mentioned, that dedication to living in the gym helped build him up.

“Since I was injured, (Calipari) was like ‘recovery, recovery, recovery’,” Tshiebwe said postgame. “It took me a lot of time to be in the gym just to do a lot of quick things. I thank God I’m playing good, I’m feeling great, so now I’m just spending a lot of time in the gym.

“Now I feel like I’m back.”

It sure did look like the Oscar of old was back against Georgia — or maybe he’s just a new-and-improved Oscar. Not even the most dominant player in the country from last season could do what Tuesday night’s version did in front of the Big Blue Nation.

“Sometimes I just don’t believe the things I’m doing,” Tshiebwe said. “Like, 37 (points) and 24 (rebounds). That is insane, I just don’t understand. I just fight. I don’t look up, I don’t do anything. I just am fighting.”