John Calipari wants to put Oscar Tshiebwe away from the basket more to make it harder for teams to double team him. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Remember that “minor” knee surgery Oscar Tshiebwe had just before the season started on Oct. 13 that was not supposed to be a big deal.
Tshiebwe said a few days after the surgery he was feeling better than ever and coach John Calipari didn’t seem like it was any big deal.
Yet last week former UK All-American Jack Givens said it still looked like Tshiebwe was just starting to get the same explosion back that he had last year and Calipari has talked frequently about how missing time early in the season set Tshiebwe back.
Tshiebwe put on a shooting exhibition against Florida in Wednesday night’s win as he went 12 of 13 from the field to score a game-high 25 points. Maybe that doesn’t impress you but in this game a majority of his field goals came from 15 feet or more but his 92.3 field goal percentage was still the fourth highest single game mark in UK history.
Tshiebwe is one of eight players nationally this season to have a game of 12 of 13 or better from the field.
It was quite a turnaround from UK’s previous game against Florida when Tshiebwe missed 12 of 14 shots. This time Florida center Colin Castleton was out with a broken hand but Calipari also moved him away from the basket. He had two field goals in the first two minutes of Wednesday’s game.
“That’s one of the things he can do, but what happened early in the season, he wasn’t making them,” Calipari said about the mid-range jump shots. “Now he had an operation. He was out for four weeks.
“He was out of kilter a little bit so he missed a bunch of those, but now he’s making them.”
Calipari knows teams are overloading to stop Tshiebwe’s scoring — and rebounding. Putting him away from the basket changes what opponents can do against him. He did have a season-low four rebounds at Florida but teammates Chris Livingston and Jacob Toppin both had double-figure rebounding games.
“If you just put him near the basket he’s got three guys around him, then it’s a slugfest. It’s not fair to him, so we’re trying to bring him up so that he’s up: Start him up, push him down, screen across, do some stuff,” Calipari said after the Florida win.
“But the biggest thing is he’s just got to keep guarding better defensively in that pick and roll. And we knew because Castleton’s out, they were going to set more ball screens and more dribble handoffs. Which is what they did.”
Tshiebwe is now the 61st player in Kentucky history to score 1,000 points as a Wildcat and is also now in eighth place in UK career rebounding with 844 in 60 games and has moved ahead of Sam Bowie who had 843.
One Response
Wow Cal must have been reading ine and others about stop forcing ball deep in paint and let O get mobbed. Now maybe he will read my many posts about tell Oscar stop leaving your biggie man for smaller man leaving him away from basket hanging out by 3 point line. which also makes a smaller Cat have to leave thier man to picck up Oscars old man. also it multiplies as the cat’s man is now wide open for a easy basket. this goes on all games for an easy score and many times the other team just didint make the easy shot.
And if you give Toppin a break put Collins in. he can not only rebound, block dunk score, make free throws better than Ware. I don’t know why Cal’s facination with Lance. He’s a good team mate. tries but when he is in it’s like Cat’s are playing 4 against 5. and why doesnt Owenys get more playing time he is a blocker and stopper against paint scorers
woluld love to see a few minutes with Collins and Owenys together when giving O a much needed rest.
Go Cats