The best rebounder in all of college basketball is far more than just a ball-hawking savant.
On Tuesday afternoon, Kentucky center Oscar Tshiebwe was selected as one of 10 finalists for the 2022 Naismith Men’s Defensive Player of the Year award, which is handed out annually to the nation’s top overall defender. Tshiebwe is second in the entire country in terms of defensive rebounding at 9.97 boards per game, but he’s also the only major conference player averaging at least 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks per game.
If he were to take home the honors, Tshiebwe would be the first Wildcat to do so since the award was introduced in 2018.