Kentucky Basketball: Cats scratch, claw Bulldogs behind Tschiebwe’s 21 and 22

Tshiebwe first Cat since Mike Phillips to have a 20 point, 20 rebound game

Kentucky will always have great players, but one record that has stood for 26 years was held by Mike Phillips and that was his 26 points and 28 rebound effort that would see the Wildcats fall 90-88 in overtime.

Jack Givens had 22 points in that game, but the Vols had Ernie Grunfeld hang 43 on them and Bernard King scored 24.

Tshiebwe tells everyone he is not a machine, but he sure damn plays like one. Either that or a very large behemoth of a man playing possessed.

But that can’t be because he is a very spiritual guy who just loves to play the game.

He’s just Oscar.

But we love Oscar.

Against the Bulldogs, he played 37 minutes and hauled down 21 rebounds. Insane numbers where he got one nearly every 90 seconds. He nearly snared three on one possession.

He was asked after the game about playing in the SEC.

"“I think I’m doing my thing. The only thing that people cannot do is you cannot stop me from getting rebounds. You can stop me sometimes from scoring but rebounding belongs to me. You cannot stop me. That’s the one thing I fight for the most, and I think I still do what I can do. I still work hard. I’m in the gym 24 hours trying to figure out how I’m going to do the next game. I’m in there like, ‘Coach, show me something. How do these teams play? How can I do better this coming game?’ We always talk with the coaches. If they stopped me from getting rebounds, which is going to be tough, I think the way to stop me from getting rebounds is getting me in foul trouble.”"

During the broadcast, ESPN’s Marty Smith remarked how Tshiebwe told him he cried every day he was at West Virginia. Well, he is surely smiling every day in Lexington.

He posted his 14th double-double of the season to open the second half where he already had 10 points and 12 rebounds