Why John Calipari is 'still trying to figure out' Kentucky basketball star Oscar Tshiebwe

LEXINGTON – Seven games into Kentucky basketball’s 2020-21 season, there is a compelling argument to be made that junior forward Oscar Tshiebwe is the Wildcats’ best player.

He leads the country in rebounding (16 per game) and ranks second on the team in scoring 14.1. Kentucky has outscored its opponents by 164 points in the 191 minutes Tshiebwe has been on the court and been outscored by two in the 89 minutes he has been on the bench.

Despite that success, John Calipari had a confession to make about Tshiebwe’s role after Kentucky’s win over Central Michigan Monday.

“I'm still trying to figure out Oscar,” Calipari said. “He was better today.”

Later in his postgame news conference, Calipari repeated his assertion that Tshiebwe was better but with the caveat that the West Virginia transfer was “still not there.”

So, where is the concern about Tshiebwe’s impressive start to his Kentucky career?

It starts in the post.

“It’s funny, Oscar was and has always had a low-post presence,” UK assistant coach Orlando Antigua recently said. “With us wanting to expand his game a little bit, he’s been able to show that 17-foot jump shot. But we still don’t want it to negate his strength, which was being able to score around the basket. It’s just a matter of getting him back comfortable with playing with his back to the basket again and looking for opportunities for him to get touches around the basket.”

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At West Virginia, Tshiebwe was used exclusively as a low-post bruiser.

Even Tshiebwe admits he was something of a one-trick pony on offense. Get the ball in the post, try to score, regardless of how many defenders were in the area trying to stop him.

Since drawing a foul was an acceptable outcome for that strategy, Tshiebwe averaged just more than seven free throw attempts per game at West Virginia. Through seven games at Kentucky, Tshiebwe is averaging just more than three free throw attempts per game.

“Coach says, ‘This is not West Virginia,’” Tshiebwe said. “When three people are coming, you kick it out. That means two people are open. This is all about basketball IQ. I’m learning.”

For now, learning means thinking – perhaps too much.

After weeks of Calipari and Tshiebwe’s teammates insisting the 6-foot-9, 255-pound forward was one of the team’s best mid-range shooters, Tshiebwe finally started showing off that skill in games.

After focusing primarily on rebounding in his first two games at Kentucky – grabbing 20 boards against both Duke and Robert Morris – Tshiebwe erupted for 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting against Mount Saint Mary’s. Most of those points came from jumpers around the free throw line.

“If you told me before the game that he'd come out and take the first four from the elbow and they're contested, then that's a shot that we'd live with,” Mount Saint Mary’s coach Dan Engelstad said after the game. “And he, to his credit, knocked it all down with confidence.”

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Working on his jump shot added a new skill to his offensive toolbox – one that will be essential if he is to make it in the NBA – but the focus appears to have sapped him of his confidence with his back to the basket. In recent games, Calipari has tried to reestablish Tshiebwe as a post presence, harkening back to his much-repeated claim that a team without a post presence is a “fraud.”

“Right now, if you see me, I catch the ball and slow down a little bit,” Tshiebwe said. “Before, I used to speed up.”

To make Tshiebwe operate quicker when he posts up a defender, Antigua and the other Kentucky coaches are trying to simplify his options.

Instead of trying to decide which post move to attempt, Antigua has instructed Tshiebwe to immediately get to his hook shot.

“Once they figure out how to stop that, then you counter it,” Antigua said. “That’s it. You shouldn’t have 13 things going through your head.”

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Worrying about the production of a player who has recorded a double-double in 6 of 7 games and who leads the country in offensive rebound percentage (28.6) might seem overly critical. After all, his 6.8 offensive rebounds per game provide plenty of opportunities for easy put-back baskets.

But Calipari and Tshiebwe know for Kentucky to make a deep NCAA Tournament run it will need an offensive strategy on nights where jump shots are not falling.

“The games you shoot 70% from 3 and the floor, those are great, but we know that’s not realistic,” Antigua said. “In order to get to where we want to try to get we’ve got to be preparing for those rough games where the ball isn’t going in, quite honestly, and we have to get easy baskets off our defense or in the paint.”

Email Jon Hale at jahale@courier-journal.com; Follow him on Twitter at @JonHale_CJ.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball: Oscar Tshiebwe working to refine post-up game