By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
The final result was unanimous.
Oscar Tshiebwe became the first player in Kentucky history to sweep all six major national player of the year honors after claiming the John R. Wooden Award on Tuesday night.
It’s the latest addition to the trophy cabinet for Tshiebwe, who also won Naismith Player of the Year, NABC National Player of the Year, AP Player of the Year, Pete Newell Big Man of the Year, Oscar Robertson Trophy, Sporting News Player of the Year, SEC Player of the Year and was a consensus first-team All-American selection.
“I just give all the glory back to God because whatever is happening, it is incredible,” he said last week. “(I) Give all the glory back to God and thank God for everything. I thank my family, my coaches, my friends, my teammates, everybody helping me to get where I am today. I am very thankful for all of them. And I’m very grateful. I cannot wait to see what God’s about to do with me.”
Tshiebwe became the first player in Southeastern Conference history to win all six major awards. Since its inception in 1977, 28 players have swept all six major awards. He became the second player coached by John Calipari to achieve the feat – the other was Marcus Camby in 1996 at Massachusetts.
“I think the reason (I had a good season) is because I really went through a lot,” he said. “I knew who I was because I’m a hard worker. I can work and I can show people what I can do by trusting in God. I just work harder and believe that people (who coached me are) God has put me in their hands to help me.
“And I never stop fighting. I fight until the end. We ended up doing something special, never quit, never stop fighting. I always fight until the end.”
More than 1,000 voters selected Tshiebwe based on crieria set by Wooden and the Wooden Award Steering Committee. Former Kentucky standout Anthony Davis won the award in 2012 after leading the Wildcats to the national championship.
The Kentucky junior averaged 17.4 points and 15.1 rebounds per game in leading the Wildcats to a 26-8 record. He ended the year with a school-record 16 consecutive double-double performances and collected 28 during the season. His biggest highlight during the season was rebounding.
“Rebounding was the biggest thing for me,” he said. “And the coaches say, no, you can’t just do rebound. You can do a lot of different things. We spent a lot of time working on my offense. Actually turned out to be great. And I started making jump shots, attacking the rim, do a lot of different things. So that was the biggest thing for me.”
Tshiebwe considers himself a student of the game, especially when it comes to rebounding.
“I study a lot. And it took, for me, like effort. And I feel like it is a gift from God,” he said. “When you have a gift from God and you know how to use it, that makes you more unstoppable. When I knew I had a gift from God about rebounding, then I just take it to another level, just studying, watching the best rebounders, what did they do to become the greatest?
“So it just helped me a lot. Watched the best rebounder, spend the time. Watch myself, watch the person I’m going to go against, watch the team — what are they going to do to stop me? So just learning and taking time for everything.”
Tshiebwe hasn’t decided on if the NBA Draft or another season at Kentucky will be in his future.
Keith Taylor is the sports editor for Kentucky Today. Reach him at keith.taylor@kentuckytoday.com and via Twitter at keithtaylor21.