Oscar Tshiebwe on finding ‘peace’ amid stardom. And bringing a national title to Kentucky.

There was little consolation in the way last season ended for the Kentucky Wildcats.

A team with seemingly legitimate national championship aspirations was quickly shoved to the side, shockingly sent packing a little more than two hours after its NCAA Tournament began.

Once that shock wore off, anger set in. For the seventh consecutive season, the Cats’ season was over without a trip to Final Four weekend. For the 10th straight year, there would be no national title for a fan base that goes into just about every season expecting to play for one.

There was plenty of frustration and a fair amount of finger-pointing. And it could’ve been worse.

Amid the angst, there was a glimmer of hope that the unthinkable might actually happen. And then it did. On the 34th day after Saint Peter’s stunningly upset Kentucky, the program’s national player of the year, Oscar Tshiebwe, announced he was coming back for another run.

A brief period of celebration ensued before all thoughts and dreams turned toward the future. Could Oscar be even better in year two at Kentucky? Could he lead Kentucky to college basketball’s promised land — in this case: Houston, Texas, on April 3, the next setting for the national championship game?

“I try to do the best I can to try and free my head from all those things,” Tshiebwe said. “The national player of the year is gone. People are saying, ‘Do you think he can do it again?’ I say, ‘I’m here. I’m going to work harder than I did last year.’”

College basketball’s best player spoke to the Herald-Leader this fall in a wide-ranging interview about the way last season ended, his plans for a second act, and dealing with the massive amount of attention that has come his way over the past year.

Tshiebwe has made a couple of things quite clear throughout this preseason. He’s working as hard as ever to become an even better competitor on the basketball court, but a repeat performance as the sport’s national player of the year is the furthest thing from his mind. He has enough individual trophies. So many, in fact, that they won’t all fit in his room on UK’s campus.

“My only goal is to help this team win a national championship,” Tshiebwe said, repeating a goal he has stated numerous times before and since.

And you can’t help but believe him.

Tshiebwe said he came to Lexington — transferring in after a season and a half at West Virginia — expecting massive team success. It didn’t surprise him that Kentucky was one of the best teams in college basketball last season. And it didn’t surprise him that he had a great season himself. His goal, he has stated, was to be the best rebounder in the country. He did that, and plenty more. Tshiebwe became a force in college basketball and an deserving recipient of every major trophy he was eligible to receive.

He’s clearly proud of those accomplishments, but earning them hasn’t made him complacent. If anything, the way last season ended — walking off the court in disbelief, on the wrong end of perhaps the biggest upset in the program’s history — has made him eager to return. And it has made a seemingly indefatigable figure as hungry as ever.

“People ask me, ‘Oscar, how can you do more than what you did last year?’ The only limit is what you place in front of you,” Tshiebwe said. “There is never a limit in life. I can do more than what I did last year. And it can be crazy again. You can only limit yourself and say, ‘This is as far as I can go. I cannot pass this.’ If you don’t put a limit, you can go far — as long as you’re working hard. I’m working hard. …

“I don’t think anybody works harder than me in college basketball. That’s why they can’t stop me.”

A better Oscar?

So, can Oscar Tshiebwe actually be better in his second season at Kentucky?

Anyone who has been paying attention over the past few months will answer that in the affirmative and without hesitation.

And how, exactly, will the nation’s best player be even better?

“In every aspect,” said returning point guard Sahvir Wheeler, who was perfectly content to leave it at that, already looking around for the next question. Perhaps he could elaborate first?

“I mean, you guys are going to see,” Wheeler said. “What Oscar does speaks for itself. He’s going to rebound the ball at an incredible rate. He’s going to play with a lot of fire, a lot of passion. He’s going to make shots. He’s going to be a better decision-maker. What else is there to do in basketball? You make good decisions. You make shots. You play defense. And you talk.”

And, according to everyone up and down the UK basketball directory, that’s what Tshiebwe has in store for his second season with the Wildcats.

John Calipari gave a similar answer a couple of weeks ago, listing off a number of basketball fundamentals and saying that Tshiebwe is better at all of them this time around.

Everyone who has been in the Wildcats’ practice facility this preseason has praised Tshiebwe’s passing ability. Veteran guard CJ Fredrick said it looks as if the game is slowing down for the 6-foot-9, 260-pound center — that he’s seeing things before they happen and reacting accordingly. Others have noted an even better shooting touch, with range that extends out to the three-point line, another weapon in Tshiebwe’s arsenal, if he needs to deploy it.

The strong, physical college senior has always been a load in the paint, but he has added mobility in that area, working this offseason with new strength and conditioning coach Brady Welsh to become a more fluid athlete, able to react better and more quickly on the defensive end. Tshiebwe is now showing an ability to switch onto smaller opponents, stay in front of guards, and impede their route to the basket without fouling. He’s finding ways to score against length — something that he struggled with at points in the past — and he’s becoming a more vocal presence in the flow of the game. Wheeler fell victim to multiple blindside screens last season, and the resulting collisions sidelined him for stretches. Calipari blamed a lack of communication.

“I don’t think that Sahvir picking up full court will get smashed now, because he knows to go up there and yell,” the UK coach said of Tshiebwe’s growth.

Calipari continued, now speaking of the intangibles Tshiebwe brings to games, the practice floor and all other aspects of Kentucky’s program. Perhaps an attribute to rival his unmatched rebounding ability.

“He’s authentic, fellas. He is who he is,” Calipari said. “Like, I’m a sinner. I know I’m a sinner. But when I’m around him, I really feel like a sinner because this kid is who he is. Every day. Like it or don’t like it, this is him.”

Oscar’s quiet place

Tshiebwe came to Kentucky nearly two years ago as a proven college player with great expectations, but it’s difficult to fathom that anyone could have predicted what would follow.

National player of the year? That was a surprise, even to the man himself.

The accolades came with a level of attention that Tshiebwe was unaccustomed to receiving.

He clearly has a personality to thrive in the spotlight he has earned, and he has harnessed it to put a suddenly influential voice behind something that, to him, is far more important than basketball.

Tshiebwe is a young man of faith, and his efforts to proselytize have been well-documented during his relatively short time on UK’s campus. He speaks to fellow students. He visits local churches. He meets with younger schoolchildren. He has become, in a relatively short amount of time, truly a man of the people and one of the most famous figures in the commonwealth.

The basketball star relishes the corresponding opportunities to share and spread his faith, but the constant attention can be exhausting, even for a people-pleaser such as Tshiebwe.

Does he ever get any solitude? Where does he find his peace?

“I find my peace …” Tshiebwe said, then paused. The UK star is speaking via telephone. On this fall Friday with no classes or practice, he saw an opportunity to get away, and he seized it.

“I can show you where I am right now,” Tshiebwe said, picking up the phone, turning the video camera to capture the scene.

On the screen, an expansive field of tall grass. As Tshiebwe continued to pan the landscape, there were trees surrounding a creek. There was a slight breeze, the gentle flow of the water, and — other than that — complete silence. No cars, buildings or people. Just the nation’s most-decorated college basketball player standing in a field and soaking up the serenity.

“This is the place I come to spend time quietly, read scripture, and spend time with God,” Tshiebwe said. “This is where I find my peace.”

He went on to explain that he’s standing on a friend’s property. It’s a farm in Fayette County, about a 10-minute drive from campus, by his estimation. He has been coming here all summer and fall when he needs a brief respite from the fame of being a Kentucky basketball legend.

Tshiebwe walks the grounds alone. Sits and reads the Bible. Sorts through his thoughts.

“Being around people is great,” he said. “But sometimes it’s too much. You need your quiet time — just you and God. When I leave this place, I leave with happiness and joy. And I go back around people and share that happiness and joy.”

The escapes are never long. Sometimes an hour, sometimes less. On many days, even in the offseason, there’s just too much to do to get away, even for a few moments. But Tshiebwe said when he leaves this place he feels recharged, ready to face whatever comes next. Mentally prepared to be a man of the people as soon as he gets back to wherever he’s going.

If becoming the national player of the year has changed Tshiebwe, he doesn’t show it.

“The kid — he’s so grounded in his spirituality that he knows that that’s fleeting,” UK associate coach Orlando Antigua said. “He accepts the credit and the adulation and recognition of that, but it doesn’t diminish him from being the person that he is. It doesn’t distract him from the core of who he is.

“And it actually gives him a bigger platform to display who he is. More than anything else.”

Year two at Kentucky

Tshiebwe knows that once the season begins, those trips to his quiet place will be less frequent.

The next five months will be marked by the singular goal of winning Kentucky’s ninth national championship, and the Wildcats’ biggest star clearly thinks this is a team that can do it.

“I trust the coaches. I trust my teammates. To say, ‘Let’s go back. Run it back again.’ I cannot end my college career like I did last year,” Tshiebwe said.

A minor knee procedure kept the UK star on the sidelines for the entirety of the fall preseason schedule — Big Blue Madness, the Blue-White Game, and two exhibitions — and his absence could stretch into the Cats’ first couple of games this week, but the setback is not expected to have a considerable impact on his status for the regular season.

And, in a way, he was already an observer before the injury.

Calipari — more than a decade later — has still not tired of telling anyone who will listen that Anthony Davis and Michael-Kidd Gilchrist took the fourth- and fifth-most shots on UK’s 2012 national title team.

The Kentucky coach now has a new rallying cry of unselfishness.

Calipari has said at every turn this fall that Tshiebwe was the “fifth-leading scorer” during the team’s four-game exhibition trip to the Bahamas over the summer, yet acted as the biggest cheerleader on the Wildcats’ bench. He was actually the Cats’ fourth-leading scorer over those four games, but his coach has a tendency to embellish, and his larger point remains.

“When your best player… is cheering harder for his teammates than anyone else, it means you got a chance,” Calipari said.

This Kentucky team is ranked No. 4 nationally in the AP preseason poll. Tshiebwe’s presence is a major reason for that lofty standing, but he should have plenty of help on the court. The Wildcats’ roster is stacked with a mix of returning players, star recruits and talented transfers.

There appears to be considerably more depth behind Tshiebwe, who was forced to play 31.9 minutes per game last season. That was partly due to his own stellar performances, partly due to the lack of options behind him. If it’s best that he sits and rests, gives someone else a chance so that he can recharge, that’ll suit him just fine.

“That is genuinely him,” Antigua said, flashing back to Tshiebwe’s “cheerleader” role in the Bahamas. “That’s who he is. Which is why — when he is dominating, having success — then his teammates are also going to be cheering for him. And that’s the culture that we have here. That’s the culture that we try to recruit here.

“Because we understand that the best teams that we’ve had have had that element. And those guys root for each other. They sacrifice for each other. They fight for one another.”

And they hold each other accountable.

When Tshiebwe spoke up last season, his teammates listened. But those instances were relatively rare for a player of his standing. He sees this season as a redo of sorts — a shot at redemption after the way the last one ended — and that means no excuses.

“If somebody starts to screw up,” Tshiebwe said, “I will go sit down with the Coach: ‘Listen, Coach, he’s not doing the right thing.’ …

“If Coach is putting people in who are not doing good, I’ll say, ‘Coach, let me coach for a second. Let me put people in who are going to help us win today.’”

There will surely be hiccups along the way, but Tshiebwe likes his team. He likes how they’ve jelled during the offseason. He sees a core group with a common goal. Now, it’s time to achieve it.

“We play for each other. We motivate each other. I like that,” he said. “And if we stay together. If we play unselfish. We play for each other. I don’t see any team that can come in and beat us.”

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