We're all aware that Oscar Tshiebwe filled up his trophy case last year to about it's max capacity. Taking home the 6 biggest award in college basketball including the National Player of the Year award, he looks to go for round two in all of those this season.
This afternoon the Kentucky big man was named a finalist for the Naismith Defensive POY trophy which is awarded to college basketball's best center later in the spring. A list that was once 50 has now turned into a midseason list of 30 finalists, which will later be cut to 4 players at the end of the regular season, then eventually a winner will be named during the tournament. It's no wonder that Oscar has been labeled as a midseason finalist due to his team-leading defensive rebounding (7.45) on a nightly basis, as well as his 1.6 steals and 1.0 block average a game to back that up. He's been doing this for two years and we all know that the cream always rises to the top, and I fully expect him to be in contention for the final cut.
Some past winners of this award are Walker Kessler (2022), Davion Mitchell (2021), Marcus Garrett (2020), Matisse Thybulle (2019), and Jevon Carter (2018). Can Oscar be the next one? He made this round, let's see if he survives the next cut.