Kentucky basketball: Fears over Washington injury overshadows Cats victory

Oscar Tshiebwe game after game proving he is the best player in America

Another game and another monster performance by Oscar Tshiebwe who continues to cement his case as the best player in America. Of course, as Calipari pointed out when asked about this after the game he reminded everyone there is always a bias when it comes to Kentucky players not winning the award.

The stat lines get sicker every game for the big man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He nearly had a double-double as the first half ended and that is against a quality big man in Colin Castleton.

He just has fun and does his job grabbing rebounds and scoring. To be effective and balanced Cal pointed out that he has to do both and not focus on one particular aspect.

Well, how do 27 points, 19 rebounds, 3 assists, and a pair of blocked shots sound?

It is the 19th double-double of the season and Dan Issel’s record of 25 is now seriously in Jeopardy. He would tie the record at of all places Florida in the season finale.

He has now tied the record for the most consecutive games with at least 10 rebounds by a Wildcat player since Issel did it twice during the 1967-1968 season when he snatched 12.

When the Cats are running Tshiebwe benefits as in the second half when slammed down on an alley-oop pass from Washington pushing the UK lead to 46-30 and forcing Florida to call a timeout with 16:24 left in the game. That was the exclamation mark on a 13-2 run opening the second half.

He made 11 of 18 field goals and 5 of 6 free throws while getting whistled for just one foul.

Feed the man the ball and he will score, grab rebounds and get the ball out in transition.

Oh, and playing alongside Ware was fun to watch as well.