Oscar Tshwiebe (West Virginia Photo)
John Calipari says he never called West Virginia coach Bob Huggins about Oscar Tshweibe transferring to Kentucky because “the people that we had talked to with Oscar were Bob Huggins fans.”
Huggins did not appear happy with the way the Tshwiebe transfer unfolded and Calipari says the two coaches — who are friends — have talked since the sophomore made his move to UK earlier this week.
“Just being in that environment, being coached by Bob, who is, in my mind, a Hall of Famer, and having that background before he comes here is good. I loved Oscar out of high school. We recruited him. Loved his effort, his intensity, all his fight,” Calipari said.
“I just said, ‘That’s what you’ve got to bring here. The most important thing will be that. You bring all that and we’ll try to help in any way we can. We’ll be about you. You be about these guys. You be about elevating everything around you here.'”
Tshwiebe was a McDonald’s All-American in high school who picked West Virginia over UK. He will bring UK a physical post presence it has not had in recent seasons.
“We’re excited. I’m excited to have him here,” Calipari said.
Tshwiebe is not on campus yet but should be soon. Once he arrives, Calipari mentioned he could have the same impact in practice the rest of the season that Enes Kanter did the year he was not eligible to play.
“I talked about what Enes did and how he got Josh Harrellson to another level. We even talked about, ‘I had another guy come in to help Nick (Richards), Ben Jordan. He had a job to toughen up Nick, to get physical, to do things to make sure your length, you’re all over Nick,'” Calipari said.
“And now I told him, ‘Your job will be, how do I help these guys?’ And again, maybe with him, I take five guys and those five are playing the top seven or eight guys and we start scrimmaging that way, even though it’s late in the season. It’s something that I’ve thought about when we get him.”
