Has college basketball figured out Oscar Tshiebwe? Coaches are quick to share the secret.

As if this Kentucky basketball season wasn’t already bad enough, it seems that the Wildcats’ opposition has cracked the code on the reigning national player of the year.

Oscar Tshiebwe, the Cats’ constant through difficult times, has been “exposed” — as Alabama Coach Nate Oats put it — over the past couple of games, and the results have been ugly.

The past week has featured Kentucky’s two worst losses — by 26 points at Alabama on Saturday, then a shocker in Rupp Arena against lowly South Carolina on Tuesday — and Tshiebwe has been right at the center of it.

What’s happening is so glaring that opposing coaches are coming right out with the truth.

South Carolina Coach Lamont Paris tried to be nice about it after his team — rated last in the Southeastern Conference and among the worst in high-major college basketball — left Rupp with a 71-68 win over the Wildcats.

Paris was asked what gave him confidence that his team — a pitiful bunch offensively, by any measure — could effectively attack the Cats.

“The ball screens,” he said. “I wanted to try to get into ball screens and just, you know, it appeared in the last game that there was ... maybe a little indecision on what they wanted to do on the ball screens. That’s outsider looking in, of course.”

That’s anyone who watched the tape of what had happened three days earlier in Tuscaloosa, of course. But more on that in a moment.

Paris went on to say that South Carolina ran more ball screens than they usually do. Why change up the normal approach?

“I wanted to have Tshiebwe have to move and make decisions,” he said. “And if they were going to switch this or if they were going to go under this or what they were going to do. So I thought the ball screens and attacking the rim was a big part of what we wanted to do.”

Another part of the plan? Starting 7-footer Josh Gray for the first time all season. Why? Because Paris had surely seen how much trouble Tshiebwe — listed at 6-9 — had with 7-footer Charles Bediako at Alabama.

The struggles piled up quickly Tuesday night.

On one early possession, Tshiebwe left Gray on the block to move toward a driving Hayden Brown, who quickly dished to Gray for an easy two. Brown went right at Tshiebwe in transition two possessions later for another easy basket. A short time later, Tshiebwe switched onto GG Jackson on a ball screen, gave him too much space, and watched Jackson nail a jumper. South Carolina led 13-2.

Not long after that, Tshiebwe left his man on a ball screen again, and Meechie Johnson quickly whipped a pass across the court to Jackson, who drained a three. Then, Tshiebwe left Gray on a ball screen outside of the three-point line. Gray rolled toward the rim. Cason Wallace left his man to try and cut off Gray, while Daimion Collins let his man, Brown, go to the corner, seemingly so he could stay in the paint and meet Gray there. Johnson had the ball and two open shooters, and dished it to Brown, who nailed a three. That gave the Gamecocks a 21-6 lead.

Afterward, Paris said all of this went according to plan.

The problems Tuesday were compounded by Kentucky players on the perimeter who were unable to stay in front of their defensive assignments. Tshiebwe said after the game that some teammates weren’t showing enough “fight” — using that word more than a dozen times throughout his interview — but it’s clear that UK’s problems go well beyond that.

“I mean, everybody’s going at Oscar, so we got to figure out some stuff,” UK Coach John Calipari said.

The Alabama game

What happened in Rupp on Tuesday night was a continuation of what had come three days earlier.

Fifteen seconds into the UK-Alabama game, Tshiebwe went at freshman point guard Jaden Bradley on a ball screen — despite the fact that Wallace was still on him — and Bradley quickly hit Bediako for an easy lob finish. One minute later, Tshiebwe again switched onto Bradley on a ball screen, leaving the 6-4 Wallace to defend Bama’s 7-footer inside. That ended with another easy layup, plus Wallace’s first foul. (He got his second foul a short time later and spent the rest of the first half on the bench).

Before Bediako stepped to the free-throw line, Calipari called Tshiebwe off the block, arms outstretched and clearly agitated. ESPN’s announcers, who attended UK’s shootaround that morning, opined that Calipari was reminding his star player of the game plan.

“It was very clear that you have to stay below Bediako when he rolls,” explained analyst Jimmy Dykes.

Tshiebwe gave Calipari a nod and a thumbs up.

After that, Jacob Toppin was defending Mark Sears and Tshiebwe left Bediako again — ending up nearly 30 feet from the basket — to double-team the 6-1 Sears as Bediako rolled toward the rim once again. Sears hit him for a dunk to give the Tide an 8-0 lead less than three minutes in.

Tshiebwe was benched not long after, and UK assistant Bruiser Flint quickly got into his face to emphatically drive home a point.

Calipari put his star player back in the game with 11:40 left in the first half. First possession: Tshiebwe again leaves Bediako, who rolls in and dunks it. Bama leads 11-2. Calipari is apoplectic. The coach raises his arms over his head in disgust, then quickly points freshman center Ugonna Onyenso toward the scorer’s table.

While Paris was polite about going right at Kentucky’s best player, Oats was blunt.

“We decided to attack him early in ball screens,” he said. “I don’t think he’s very good guarding ball screens. … We’ve seen him mess up a lot of ball-screen coverages in scouting them, so we wanted to attack him in that. When we did attack him, they pulled him out of the game and made it a lot easier to guard when he was on the bench.”

Tshiebwe ended up with four points and six rebounds in just 23 minutes — after averaging 39 minutes over UK’s previous three games — and Oats said Bradley’s play in the early going was a big reason for the lack of playing time.

“He was exposing Tshiebwe in the pick and roll,” he stated.

Tshiebwe struggled with long players last season, too, but — with a full offseason to further scout him, plus some team limitations around him — coaches seem to have figured out how to go at the nation’s reigning player of the year. And as Tshiebwe goes, so goes Kentucky.

What has to be worrying for Calipari is that Tshiebwe should know this is coming. Kentucky’s coach said after the Bama game that he’d drilled his players on what to do in these situations.

“What happened to start the game — it wasn’t how we were playing these pick and rolls,” Calipari said. “And then I’m trying to do it on the board and explain it again, and they get another lob and I said, ‘You can’t be in.’”

Tshiebwe is averaging 16.0 points and 13.1 rebounds per game — and leading UK in both categories — despite a preseason knee injury, so the Cats’ relatively awful season so far cannot be placed on his shoulders. Yet, the unstoppable force of a year ago just hasn’t looked the same this time around. Calipari has noticed it, too, calling out Tshiebwe publicly for not always playing through contact at the basket, not being where he’s supposed to be on the court, not kicking out when opponents collapse on him in the paint.

During a practice earlier this season, the UK coach stopped things when Tshiebwe came down with a one-handed rebound, implied that he wasn’t going at the boards with the gusto he was capable of and outright predicting that he’d have a few more rebounds per game if he’d cut down on the tip-outs and one-handed attempts.

And, now, the unthinkable: coaches actively touting their ability to exploit his shortcomings.

That’s a very bad development for a Kentucky team that can’t afford any more bad developments.

Tshiebwe spoke at length about the Cats needing more fight moving forward. They’ll get plenty from the teams they play, starting with a trip to No. 5 Tennessee on Saturday afternoon. Tshiebwe acknowledged just minutes after the South Carolina loss that he was fired up for that one.

“I am. I am,” he said. “And I’m going there — I’m gonna go fight, until the end. Until the last game at Kentucky, I’m gonna just keep fighting.”