Breaking down the commitment of Oscar Tshiebwe

Yesterday afternoon, Bob Huggins and the West Virginia Mountaineers landed five-star center Oscar Tshiebwe.

Tshiebwe is now known as the highest graded recruit to ever commit to WVU. According to 247 Sports, Devin Ebanks was formerly the highest with a composite score of 0.9788, but Tshiebwe is currently graded at 0.9915.

The 6’9″ 250 pound Tshiebwe plays his high school basketball at Kennedy Catholic (PA) where he enters his senior season. He also plays for the ITPS Wildcats, who are the 15th ranked AAU team in the country. Alongside him for the Wildcats is another WVU target in 6’7″ SF Jalen Bridges from Fairmont, WV.

Next year as a freshman, I am expecting Tshiebwe to come in and be ready to go. This is a grown man. He is known by many coaches and scouts to be “the best rebounder in the country” and with a frame like that, you can see why. Current Mountaineer, Sagaba Konate, is expected to forego his senior season and declare for the NBA Draft so Tshiebwe can fill right in.

If you compare the two, Tshiebwe is surprisingly more athletic. He also plays the same ferocious style of defense as Konate, but he hasn’t seemed to really develop an outside shot yet. We all know that comes over time though, as Konate is just getting the green light to shoot the three-ball this coming season.

So, will Oscar Tshiebwe be a one-and-done? It’s too early to tell as of right now, but there are rumors of him already catching the attention of NBA scouts. I know one thing though, if he does happen to stay for two years then he can be a top five pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.