Oscar Tshiebwe carries Cats in second half to thwart Southern upset bid

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Oscar Tshiebwe drew a crowd of Southern defenders but still had 23 points to spark UK's win. (Jeff Houchin/Nolan Media)

Sean Woods couldn’t help himself. When the former University of Kentucky point guard saw UK center Oscar Tshiebwe get his second foul midway of the first half and a third foul early in the second half, he had one thought.

“We got a chance. You take the nation’s leading rebounder out of the game. You saw when Cal put him back in the game what happens,” said Woods, now the head coach at Southern. “If he fouls out, a 13-point game might not be a 13-point game. But he answered the bell. That’s what the best players in the country do.”

Because Tshiebwe did that, Kentucky was able to turn back Southern 76-64 Tuesday night in Rupp Arena and avoid the stunning upset SEC member Florida suffered a night earlier when Texas Southern won 69-54 at Florida. It was the first time a Southwestern Athletic Conference team had ever beat a ranked SEC team.

Kentucky coach John Calipari warned his players that Southern, not Texas Southern, was picked to win the conference and they better be ready for a much more difficult game than most expected.

“We had some kids not play well. They outhustled us. They outplayed us. We could not stay in front of them,” Calipari said.

Problem for Southern was it had no answer for Tshiebwe when he was not on the bench in foul trouble. He finished with 23 points on 9-for-11 shooting and 11 rebounds despite playing only 25 minutes. He had 18 points and eight rebounds in the second half.

“I thought Oscar was the difference down the stretch,” Woods said.

Calipari didn’t try to downplay what Tshiebwe did.

“We needed him to win the game,” the UK coach said while noting that the coaches must work more with him to help him adjust from double teams coming from all sides to stop him.

Woods understands Kentucky fans expected the Cats to win by a bigger margin. But he stressed Tuesday’s game was just part of a trend in college basketball.

“There are no dominant teams because there are no older guys,” Woods said. “The best players are going to the NBA. The playing field is more even.

“I think this team is very good and I think they have got a chance if they stick together without any injuries to make a run, especially in the SEC and hopefully the NCAA (Tournament).”

7 Responses

  1. Aside from Oscar, I am seeing old habits of teams past emerge with this team. I see a lot of one on one offense and can’t stay in front of my man defense. There is very little chemistry among this team and now we are getting to the better teams. Keion’s game has disappeared and Sahvir’s game has been coached down. If Big O gets tired, gets hurt, or gets into foul trouble, well…you saw the Southern game.

    1. Great observation, I left work early so I could watch to see if the Cats pass the eye test in the final tune up. FAIL! Outside of Oscar,Wheeler and Ty Ty with his spurts. Illnesses and injuries have been a concern of mine since the season started lost CJ to start the season then it started the rolling snowball effect. IMHO Kids today seem to be softer,more prone to illnesses & injuries then ever before. Chemistry & finding an IDENTITY early on is very important and as of late that has certainly been a thorn in UK’s side.

  2. Oscar is this team. The rest are supporting acts at best, and many of the supporting cast are not sufficient to make a good team great. Through 8 games, Oscar is still only using 8% of the team’s possessions while scoring at an efficiency of 2.15 points per possession ended (pppe). The next highest offensive efficiency on this team belongs to Collins at 1.37 pppe using 5% of possessions and Wheeler at 1.22 pppe using 13% of possessions.

    The sad story of this team is a Calipari stable, his hand-picked favorites are using 17.4% of possessions (Tyty) at 1.05 pppe and 12% of possessions (Brooks) at 0.78 pppe.

    This distribution of the use of possessions is dragging the team down, but Calipari either doesn’t care or doesn’t recognize it, and I don’t know which would be worse.

    Last night’s game was the poorest game of this season, and it is the first time this season that this team’s game efficiency has dropped in two consecutive games. The trend is heading in the wrong direction.

    This team is just more of the recent same old same old from Calipari.

    Double-digit losses and a failure to secure one of the four SEC Tournament’s double-byes are on their way!!!!

    The real season begins at game 18, so the Calipari sycophants have another 10 games to bask in his glow before reality sets in.

    Enjoy the ride.

    1. Great observation, I left work early so I could watch to see if the Cats pass the eye test in the final tune up. FAIL! Outside of Oscar there is no Alpha but Wheeler does has his moments. Illnesses and injuries have been a concern of mine since the season started lost CJ to start the season then it started the rolling snowball effect. IMHO Kids today seem to be softer,more prone to illnesses & injuries then ever before. Chemistry & finding an IDENTITY early on is very important and as of late that has certainly been a thorn in UK’s side. Cal being a players 1st coach who sticks with his hand picked favorites regardless of play is getting old KB should have been benched several games ago the dude just has not put in the WORK to improve over the years! Team was once again over hyped as having KNOCK DOWN shooters from the perimeter, they have only shot 50% from range ONCE against cupcakes. I will always stand by my team but COME ON CAL what the hell!?

  3. It was a win thanks to Oscar, but this version of UK basketball sure don’t look like a UK championship is coming anytime soon IMO. I hope I am wrong, but my eyes confirm my suspicions.

  4. Outside of Oscar, we have no bigs who have the body and toughness to battle underneath the basket. The rest of the team is far more worried about getting their own shots and let everyone else play D. Collins and Toppin are 30 pounds underweight for their position as is Ware. Hopkins should be getting more PT at the 3 spot, Brooks game has disappeared. Coach needs to stop putting ideas in Wheeler’s head about being a Mr. Everything. His shots need to come from a pass not off the dribble. Ty Ty seems to be thinking more and more about being one and done. Kellan finally found his shot again but did not get enough shots. Coach seems to think that Sahvir and Ty Ty are his best shots at being lottery picks and it shows the number of shots both take. Eric Musselman and Nate Oats have got their teams to buy into playing as teams. I wish we had a coach who would do the same.

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