LEXINGTON, Ky. — Oscar Tshiebwe has accomplished something no other University of Kentucky basketball player has ever done. The UK forward won the John R. Wooden on Tuesday giving him a clean sweep of all six major Player of the Year honors.
Tshiebwe beat out Ochai Agbaji (Kansas), Johnny Davis (Wisconsin), Keegan Murray (Iowa) and Drew Timme (Gonzaga) for the Wooden Award. Anthony Davis was the last Wildcat to win the Wooden Award in 2012 and he also won all Player of the Year awards except the honor by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. So, even he was not a consensus Player of the Year.
Kentucky has had 53 players win some form of All-American honors and five have won some form of Player of the Year. Since 1977 when all six began being awarded in every season, 28 players have swept the honors. Tshiebwe is the second player coached by John Calipari to earn that distinction, also joining Marcus Camby of UMass in 1996. In addition to becoming the first player in program history to achieve the feat, he is the first player in Southeastern Conference history to win all six awards in the same season.
Tshiebwe avearged a double-double this season with 17 points and 15 rebounds. He is the first Division I player who averaged at least 15.0 points and at least 15.0 rebounds per game since Drake’s Lewis Lloyd and Alcorn State’s Larry Smith each did during the 1979-80 season, and the first major-conference player who averaged at least 16.0 points and at least 15.0 rebounds for a season since Bill Walton at UCLA in 1972-73. He became the first Wildcat to do it since Bob Burrow tallied 19.1 points and 17.7 rebounds per game in 1954-55.
Kentucky has had 53 players win some form of All-American honors and five have won some form of Player of the Year.
Tshiebwe is going to have to build a trophy case to hold all of the awards and trophies he's earned this post-season. He's captured the following:
- Naismith Player of the Year
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award
- 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
