NCAA Basketball: Gonzaga, Kansas among teams with 2022-23 NPOY favorites

5. Oscar Tshiebwe – Kentucky Wildcats

2022-23 stats: 16.6 ppg and 14.0 rpg

The timing was against the reigning NCAA Basketball National Player of the Year when I made my previous NPOY power rankings, as the team was just coming off an awful home loss to South Carolina and nowhere near the top 25 power rankings. In fact, they were projected to be out of the NCAA Tournament mix after that.

The good news is that the team has rebounded since, winning three straight games. One of those included a pivotal road win at top 5 Tennessee to keep them in the bubble mix. In that game, Tshiebwe had 15 points and 13 rebounds in the upset victory.

But the star big man saved his best performance of the season in the next game, at home against a feisty Georgia squad that was leading for a good portion of the game and made it close late. But they had literally no answer for Tshiebwe, with him going for a career-high 37 points and 24 rebounds in a win. He shot 12/20 from the field and even more impressive was 13/18 from the free throw line.

Tshiebwe once again leads the country in total and offensive rebounding and his overall numbers are simply too good not to have him in the mix once again. His chances of repeating are certainly lower this time around but if Kentucky makes a February one, don’t be surprised if the hype for him starts to increase. And players from this list containing to lose also will help.