LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky junior forward Oscar Tshiebwe is one of five finalists being considered for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award which honors the nation’s best center the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced on Friday.
Joining Tshiebwe among the finalists are Walker Kessler (Auburn), Adam Sanogo (Connecticut), Drew Timme (Gonzaga) and Kofi Cockburn (Illinois).
“Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is widely regarded as the best college basketball player of all time,” said John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Basketball Hall of Fame. “To be acknowledged as a finalist for an award that bears his name is a phenomenal achievement and these student athletes should be celebrated. As a player, person and talent evaluator, Kareem has always operated at an elite level, and we are grateful for his continued involvement in the Naismith Starting Five.”
A national committee of top college basketballpersonnel determined the watch list of 20 candidates in November, which was narrowed to 10 candidates in late January and now just five finalists. This month, the finalists will be presented to Mr. Abdul-Jabbar and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee. The winner of the 2022 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award will be determined by a combination of fan votes and input from the Basketball Hall of Fame’s selection committee. Naismith Starting Five Fan Voting will go live on, March 4 on hoophallawards.com.
“This is a tremendous crop of student-athletes that are each deserving of winning this award,” said Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 1995. “It’ll be a lot of fun to watch these young men play their hardest when the stakes at their highest as we come into the home stretch of the season.”
The winner of the 2022 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Awardwill be presented on a to be determined date, along with the other four members of the Men’s Starting Five.Additional information about the award presentation, including date and time, will be released in the coming weeks.
At first Tshiebwe grabbed the nation’s attention with historic rebounding numbers. Now he’s making a run at national player of the year accolades with outstanding performances in all facets of the game.
It’s easy to see why he’s getting all the attention. Tshiebwe is not only averaging a double-double but doing so with a considerable margin — averaging a team-best 16.9 points and a nation-leading 15.3 rebounds per game. He is looking to become the first Division I player to average at least 15.0 points and at least 15.0 rebounds per game since Drake’s Lewis Lloyd and Alcorn State’s Larry Smith each did during the 1979-80 season, and the first Wildcat to do it since Bob Burrow tallied 19.1 points and 17.7 rebounds per game in 1954-55.
In addition to his offensive and rebounding prowess, on the defensive end Tshiebwe is the only major conference player averaging at least 1.5 blocked shots and 1.5 steals per game. He has also snared 70 more rebounds than the next closest player this season, through games on March 1.
On Jan. 25, Tshiebwe had a 21-point, 22-rebound showing in the overtime win vs. Mississippi State, the first 20-20 game for a Wildcat in 46 years, when Mike Phillips produced two such outings in 1976.
Another eye-popping stretch was a combined 59 points and 30 rebounds in wins vs. Georgia and at Vanderbilt on Jan. 8 and 11. A game after posting 29 points and 17 rebounds vs. Georgia — the first UK player with at least 29 points and at least 17 rebounds in a game since Jamal Mashburn totaled 38 points and 19 boards vs. Eastern Kentucky on Dec. 8, 1992 — he went for 30 points and 13 rebounds at Vanderbilt. That marked the first 30-point, 10 rebound-game for a Wildcat since Patrick Patterson did it vs. Tennessee State on Dec. 22, 2008. The back-to-back performances also marked the first time a Kentucky player has scored at least 29 points in consecutive Southeastern Conference games
since Kenny Walker in February 1985.
Tshiebwe has corralled at least 10 boards in all but two games this season, and is in the midst of a stretch of 17 straight games with double-digit rebounds. That’s a record for the Wildcats dating back to the 1967-68 season with complete game-by-game rebounding records. Dan Issel had two stretches of 12 such games. It’s also the longest stretch by any SEC player since at least 1996- 97. It’s also the longest streak by a major-conference player since Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan also had 17 in 1997.
Tshiebwe has been elite on the glass from the very beginning of the season. He set new records for the Champions Classic and UK debut with 20 boards vs. Duke in the season opener, nearly tied the Rupp Arena record with 20 rebounds in his first home game, and then shattered that Rupp record with 28 boards vs. Western Kentucky. That easily surpassed Shaquille O’Neal’s previous mark of 21. It’s worth noting Tshiebwe did that primarily against the tallest player in college basketball, Jamarion Sharp, who stands at 7-foot-5. With 20 boards the following game against Missouri, his 48 boards tied for the most over a two-game span by any Division I player over the last 25 seasons (according to ESPN Stats & Info).
With 460 rebounds on the season, Tshiebwe has the third-most in one season in UK history, and the most since Cliff Hagan in 1952. Two players have corralled more than 500 in a season (Bill Spivey — 567 in 1951 and Hagan — 528 in 1952). If Tshiebwe continues to average 15 rebounds per game, he should need to play in just three more games to become the third player to reach the 500-rebound plateau.
Only two players under John Calipari have averaged double-figure rebounds for a season: Anthony Davis (2012) and Randle (2014) who both hauled in 10.4 per game. Tshiebwe has already surpassed both Davis and Randle in total rebounds for a season. Both Randle and Davis played in 40 games in their respective seasons, Tshiebwe needed just 28 games to pass them.
Tshiebwe’s focus on rebounding has paid dividends with second-chance scoring opportunities. He has scored at least 20 points in a team-high 10 games. He is the first UK player to register three straight games of 20 or more points since Immanuel Quickley in February of 2020 and is also the first Wildcat to score at least 30 points in a game since Quickley had 30 at Texas A&M on Feb. 25, 2020. He’s also the first player since Quickley to have a stretch of at least 12 straight games scoring in double-figures.
Tshiebwe is in the midst of notching 12 straight double-doubles, the longest streak since Issel had 12 straight in 1969-70. Tshiebwe is tied with Randle for the second-most double-doubles in a single season in UK history. Issel has the record with 26 in 1969-70.
He is currently leading the Wildcats in points per game (16.9), rebounds per game (15.3), steals per game (1.8), blocks per game (1.5) and field-goal percentage with a minimum of 100 attempts (60.2%). Since the 1978-79 season, only one Wildcat has led the team in those five categories (minimum 130 field-goal attempts) in a single season – Davis in 2011-12.
Furthermore, Tshiebwe is responsible for 37.9% of all of UK’s rebounds thus far. Taking away team rebounds, that number jumps to 41.4%.
Tshiebwe and the Wildcats conclude regular-season action at Florida on Saturday. The game will be televised by CBS.
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and on the web at UKathletics.com.