How should Oscar Tshiebwe be remembered in Kentucky basketball lore?

Oscar Tshiebwe’s announcement Wednesday that he was keeping his name in the 2023 NBA Draft and foregoing the opportunity to play one more season for Kentucky brought an end to one of the most remarkable playing careers in UK’s regal men’s basketball history.

In the two seasons (2021-22 and 2022-23) he played for the Wildcats after transferring from West Virginia, the 6-foot-9, 255-pound product of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, carved a genuinely unique notch in Kentucky basketball lore.

Tshiebwe is the first Kentucky player since Kenny Walker (1984-85 and 1985-86) to be named a unanimous All-America selection in back-to-back seasons. When Tshiebwe claimed national player of the year honors from all six NCAA-recognized sanctioning bodies in 2021-22, he became the first UK player ever so recognized.

Yet crazy as this is to say about so decorated a player, I can’t help but wonder if Tshiebwe’s UK career isn’t somewhat undervalued.

Consider some of the crazy numbers Tshiebwe produced:

▪ In the 66 games in which Tshiebwe wore a UK uniform, he had 10 or more rebounds in 57 contests.

▪ In 31 of the 66 games he played for Kentucky, Tshiebwe had 15 rebounds or more.

▪ Eight times as a Wildcat, Tshiebwe pulled down 20 rebounds or more in a contest. According to UK, all other Wildcats players since 1970-71 have combined for seven such games.

▪ Only one time during his two-season Kentucky career did Tshiebwe go two straight games without a double-digit rebounding effort. This past season, he had seven boards in UK’s 66-54 win over Tennessee on Feb. 18, then followed that up with four rebounds in an 82-74 victory at Florida four days later.

▪ Tshiebwe had a points/rebounds double-double in 48 of his 66 Kentucky games.

▪ Three times as a Wildcat, Tshiebwe produced a “double double-double” in games — 21 points, 22 rebounds vs. Mississippi State in 2021-22; 37 points and 24 boards against Georgia in 2022-23; and 21 points and 20 rebounds against Vanderbilt on Senior Night in 2022-23.

▪ In his career-best rebounding game at Kentucky, a 28-board tour de force against Western Kentucky in Rupp Arena in 2021-22, Tshiebwe personally outrebounded the opposing team — WKU had 27 total rebounds.

▪ Among players who only played two seasons for Kentucky, Tshiebwe has more career rebounds (952) than anyone else. He has the second-most career points (1,117) among two-year UK players, behind only Bill Spivey (1,213 in 1949-50 and 1950-51).

Determining Tshiebwe’s proper place in Kentucky men’s basketball lore is a multilayered task.

If Anthony Davis is the best player of the John Calipari coaching era (since 2009-10) and John Wall the most impactful, Tshiebwe is just ahead of Tyler Ulis in the battle to be considered the most productive.

In the larger context of UK basketball history, for a two-year player to be departing Kentucky as the school’s 48th all-time leading scorer, sixth all-time rebounder and its 14th-most accurate field-goal shooter (58.43 percent) is pretty strong.

“Oscar achieved things that no other player has in decades,” Calipari said in a tweet after Tshiebwe announced his intention to turn pro. “I wish we could have won more, but he gave everything he had to Kentucky.”

In terms of legacy, some will hold it against Tshiebwe that Kentucky won no SEC championships, regular season nor tournament, during his two seasons in Lexington.

With Tshiebwe on its roster, UK went only 1-2 in the NCAA Tournament.

While it is inarguable that Tshiebwe’s difficulties as a defender against high pick-and-roll actions hurt Kentucky (22-12) in 2022-23, including in the Wildcats’ season-ending 75-69 loss to Kansas State in the 2023 NCAA Tournament round of 32, it is unfair to take the frustrations of what has been a relatively unrewarding period in UK basketball history out on Tshiebwe.

In the three NCAA Tournament games in which Tshiebwe played for Kentucky, he averaged 21.0 points, 19.7 rebounds, 2.3 steals and made 59 percent (23 of 39) of his field goal tries.

It is no more fair to dock Tshiebwe’s Kentucky legacy for his teams’ lack of NCAA tourney success than it is to knock prior UK greats such as Dan Issel and Cotton Nash for the same.

Issel, UK’s all-time leading scorer (2,138 career points) and rebounder (1,078), played on teams that went 3-3 in the NCAA Tournament — with one of the victories in a consolation game.

Nash, who was Kentucky’s all-time points leader (1,770) before Issel broke his record and is still UK’s fifth all-time rebounder (962), was the star of teams that went 1-3 in the NCAA Tournament — albeit with one of the defeats in a consolation game.

Wherever you rank Tshiebwe overall among the all-time greats in Kentucky men’s basketball history, two things seem clear:

There’s a strong case to be made that Tshiebwe is the best rebounder UK has ever had.

The zeal with which Oscar Tshiebwe played made him a blast to watch.

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