Oscar Tshiebwe adds to hardware haul with 2 more Player of the Year awards
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Oscar Tshiebwe continues to add to his hardware haul for the 2021-22 season. On Friday, he picked up 2 more national Player of the Year honors. On Friday, Tshiebwe picked up the 2022 Oscar Robertson Trophy, the United States Basketball Writers Association’s most outstanding men’s college basketball player, and the Associated Press Player of the Year honor.
The junior forward averaged a double-double of 17.4 points and 15.1 rebounds per game as Kentucky’s top scorer and the nation’s leading rebounder, helping the Wildcats go 26-8 this season.
“Thank you. First of all, I would like to thank God, because I feel like you cannot get without him. If I did not trust God and let him lead me in everything I do,” Tshiebwe said a press conference for the AP award.
“And second, I would love to thank my coaches and everybody on the staff for always believing in me and always work with me through the process. My teammates, I thank my teammates for everything, too, because I could not do it on my own. I needed somebody like my teammates to encourage, to be with me in everything we’ve done together. And I’m very grateful to be here. And I thank the organization for choosing me as player of the year. I’m very thankful for them too. And I’m very happy to be here. Very happy, and I’m very excited. This is one of the things, like, it is everybody’s dream to receive that trophy right there. But I’m sitting right here receiving that trophy. That makes me feel very happy and I’m really grateful for everything. Thank you.”
Friday’s honors are the latest on a long list for Tshiebwe:
- USBWA Oscar Robertson Trophy
- Associated Press Player of the Year
- NABC National Player of the Year
- NABC Pete Newell Big Man of the Year
- NCAA Consensus All-America First Team
- Wooden Award All-America Team
- USBWA First-Team All-America
- NABC First-Team All-America
- Associated Press First-Team All-America
- Sporting News First-Team All-America
- Wooden Award All-America Team
- NABC All-District 20 First Team
- Southeastern Conference Player of the Year (coaches/media)
- All-SEC First Team (coaches/media)
- All-SEC Defensive Team (coaches)
- USBWA District IV Player of the Year
- USBWA All-District IV team
- CBS Sports National Player of the Year
- USA Today National Player of the Year
- USA Today First-Team All-American
- The Athletic’s National Player of the Year
- Sports Illustrated First-Team All-American
- The Field of 68 National Player of the Year
- The Field of 68 First-Team All-America
- College Hoops Today National Player of the Year
- USA Today SEC Player of the Year
- USA Today First-Team All-SEC unanimous selection
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
