LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Kentucky senior forward Oscar Tshiebwe added second-team All-America honors by the National Association by Basketball Coaches to his growing list of postseason honors.
Tshiebwe is the first Wildcat to earn All-America accolades in consecutive seasons since Tayshaun Prince in 2001 and 2002.
Tshiebwe leads the Wildcats in scoring (16.5) and rebounds (13.1) for the second-consecutive season. He is the only player in the country averaging at least 15.0 points, 10.0 rebound, 1.5 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game in another banner season for the Wildcats.
The NABC is one of the four “major” NCAA-recognized All-America teams that the NCAA uses for its consensus All-America teams. Tshiebwe claimed third-team accolades by The Sporting News last week and second team honors by the Associated Press. The last recognized outlet is the United States Basketball Writers Association.
Tshiebwe is the 12th player under John Calipari to earn All-America honors and the first to win multiple distinctions by one of the four major organizations. He joins John Wall (2010), DeMarcus Cousins (2010), Anthony Davis (2012), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (2012), Julius Randle (2014), Willie Cauley-Stein (2015), Karl-Anthony Towns (2015), Tyler Ulis (2016), Jamal Murray (2016), Malik Monk (2017) and PJ Washington (2019) in earning All-America distinction by either The Sporting News, AP, USBWA or the NABC. He is the 56th player overall in program history to earn All-America distinction.
Throughout program history and with Tshiebwe’s inclusion, 24 players have garnered All-America distinction in multiple seasons.
Tshiebwe is not only averaging a double-double but he’s breaking records in the process.
He is leading the country for the second straight year with 13.1 rebounds per contest to go along with a team-best 16.5 points per game. Among Tshiebwe’s Southeastern Conference-high 19 doubles, the senior has tallied six 20-point, 15-rebound contests this season after seven a season ago. He has 13 of the 55 such contests by SEC players in the last 10 seasons.
In just 64 games for Kentucky, Tshiebwe ranks eighth in program history with 909 rebounds. He has registered a double-double in 47 of those 64 games, ranking third in program history behind Dan Issel (64) and Cotton Nash (48).
He became the 61st player in program history to tally more than 1,000 points in a career and currently ranks 49th overall with 1,084. Only Bill Spivey (1,213) tallied more points than Tshiebwe in just two seasons with the Cats.
Averaging 12.1 rebounds per game for his career, Tshiebwe joins Paul Millsap and Kenneth Faried as the only players since the 1996-97 season to average 12 rebounds per game for their career. He leads the country in rebounds per game and ranks second in total rebounds (394).
In one of the best individual performances of the season, Tshiebwe poured in a career-high 37 points and added 24 rebounds in a home victory against Georgia on Jan. 17. It was the first 35-point, 20-rebound game for a Wildcat since 1976 and just the fifth such game in program history.
The Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo native has tallied double-figure points in each of UK’s last eight games and has produced four 20-point efforts in that stretch. He has generated 12 games with 15 or more rebounds this season.
Tshiebwe is racking up postseason honors by the day. The major honors he’s won or is a finalist for so far include:
- NABC Second-Team All-America
- Associated Press Second-Team All-America
- Sporting News Third-Team All-America
- NABC District 20 First Team
- USBWA District IV First Team
- All-SEC First Team (coaches and media)
- John R. Wooden Award finalist
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award finalist
- Oscar Robertson Trophy late season watch list
