Western Kentucky coach Rick Stansbury says Oscar Tshiebwe has improved offensively at Kentucky while continuing to be a rebounding force. (Jeff Houchin/Nolan Media)
Western Kentucky coach Rick Stansbury, a Kentucky native, has seen a lot of special performances by UK players during his time coaching at Mississippi State, Texas A&M, and Western. However, nothing has topped what he saw from Oscar Tshiebwe last week when UK beat his team 95-60.
Tshiebwe had a Rupp Arena record 28 rebounds — the most by a UK player since Mike Phillips also had 28 in 1976. He had one more rebound than the entire Western team. He grabbed an astonishing 42 percent of the missed shots in the game.
Stansbury says Tshiebwe has always been about rebounding more than anything else.
“I thought this when I saw him as a high school guy. Rebounding is about half ability, and that other half is about will, the will, that motor. He did that in high school,” Stansbury said after the game.
“One thing to separate him from every other big guy in the country was his motor on the offensive boards. He just has always done that. Then naturally now, Cal’s got him scoring a little bit. So, when you score a little bit, too, that just gives you more energy.”
Western Kentucky played West Virginia during the 2020-21 season when Tshiebwe was still with the Mountaineers. He had seven points and five rebounds in 17 minutes.
“He’s got a lot better offensively. We played him last year when he was at West Virginia. He’s not even close to the player offensively he was, so give their staff a lot of credit,” Stansbury said.
“They’ve done a good job developing him at Kentucky. He’s got a motor, takes a lot of pride in rebounding. That’s why he’s the best in the country at it. Twenty-eight rebounds? I’ve never had anybody go get 28 rebounds.”
9 Responses
Rick Stansbury has never had anything good to say about John Calipari…until now. I think Rick is trying to warm up to Mitch Barnhart knowing that Calipari will not be at UK for much longer.
I don’t know. I think Rick is usually pretty complimentary of UK players though
These quotes are 11 days old????
Game was played 12/22…..Old news
Thanks for the kind words UK1996champs/Gary. Suggest you just find something else to read
You tell him Larry, lol.
I like reading your stuff Larry. Just surprised this article is just popping up
It’s hard to write everything that happens every day. YOu have to space things out to provide daily content
I like reading anything about the big blue anytime.late is better then never.I’ve never heard rick say anything negative about Cal or the program.I think he is a great coach really not having him in SEC no more them were fun games back in mid 90’s when he was at Miss St.so he knows good coaching and can see the improvement big Oscar has made since coming to ky.thanks Larry good article.
Appreciate that Thomas. Big Stansbury fan here
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