LEXINGTON, Ky. – There has been little to celebrate for Kentucky basketball fans since a shocking season-ending loss to No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s in the NCAA Tournament.
Until Wednesday at least.
Beloved star forward Oscar Tshiebwe, who swept the major National Player of the Year awards, is returning to school. The projected second-round pick announced he will delay starting a professional career for at least one more year in order to play for Kentucky again next season.
After more than a decade of UK stars leaving Lexington after just one or two seasons of college basketball, Tshiebwe’s return offers hope that name, image, and likeness reforms could usher in more stability for John Calipari’s rosters moving forward. Of the 14 underclassmen to previously sweep the Player of the Year awards since 1977, only two have returned to school the next year: Ralph Sampson in 1982 and Tyler Hansbrough in 2008.
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Kentucky forward Oscar Tshiebwe (34) celebrates during the second half of the team’s NCAA college basketball game against Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference men’s tournament.
However, of the 12 underclassmen who swept the awards and left college for the NBA, 11 were picked in the first six picks of the ensuing draft. Only one (Jalen Brunson, 2018) was a second-round pick, the range Tshiebwe was projected to be selected in if he entered in the 2021 draft. Combine Tshiebwe’s middling draft stock and the possibility of earning significant money off NIL endorsement deals at UK next season — if questions about his student visa status are resolved — and his decision was different than any Player of the Year before him.
A consensus first-team All-American, Tshiebwe broke UK’s record for double-doubles in a single season (27). He ranks third on UK’s single-season rebounds list (515)….
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