West Virginia Basketball: What to expect out of Oscar Tshiebwe for 2019-20?
West Virginia Basketball has its biggest recruit in the past few seasons in center Oscar Tshiebwe. What can the Mountaineers expect out of him next season?
West Virginia Basketball coach Bob Huggins has not always been known as a top-notch recruiter. Rather, Huggins has built a successful track record off of developing underrecruited players, such as Jevon Carter, Daxter Miles, and Nathan Adrian.
In fact, a pair of the Mountaineers’ top players heading into next season, Derrick Culver and Jordan McCabe, were both underrecruited out of high school before blossoming into future stars during their freshman campaigns last season.
However, the switch looks to be in the process of being flipped in Morgantown with the arrival of Oscar Tshiebwe.
Tshiebwe, the 30th-ranked recruit in the Class of 2019 by 247 Sports, was a McDonald’s All-American and is the top player out of the state of Pennsylvania.
247 Sports has Tshiebwe ranked as the top recruit in West Virginia basketball history, ahead of Kevin Jones and Devin Williams.
Tshiebwe is one of the top centers in the class and will slide right into a starting role for the Mountaineers with Sagaba Konate to the NBA.
Alongside other young players such as McCabe and Culver, the expectations will be quite high for Tshiebwe, especially in a competitve Big 12.
In his senior season at Kennedy Catholic High School, Tshiebwe won the Gatorade Player of the Year, averaging 23.4 points, 18 rebounds, and five blocks per game. While it is completely unreasonable to expect matching those stats in college, the numbers put up by Tshiebwe simply exemplify the impact that he will make on his West Virginia team.
Reasonably, a good expectation for Tshiebwe is at least a double-double per game, as well as the team lead in blocks and defensive efficiency. Tshiebwe is a rich-man’s Konate in a way, considering his defensive dominance combined with much more effectiveness on offense.
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Ultimately, there is a good chance that the addition of Tshiebwe lifts the Mountaineers back to the NCAA Tournament. Their run to the Big 12 Tournament semifinals was a glimpse of their potential, and considering the improvements from Culver and McCabe among others, a tournament trip is on the horizon for the Mountaineers.