What's Wrong With Oscar Tshiebwe?

Throughout his freshman campaign, there was a lot of speculation surrounding West Virginia forward Oscar Tshiebwe and his future with the team. He played at such a high level that he gave some consideration to entering the NBA Draft after just one season in Morgantown.

Tshiebwe submitted paperwork last summer to get an evaluation from NBA scouts and ultimately decided that it was in his best interest to return to West Virginia. After averaging 11.2 points and 9.3 rebounds as a true freshman, it seemed like this decision to return to college was going to just be for one more year. However, Tshiebwe's performance through the first nine games of the season may force him to stick around for his junior year, if not longer.

Tshiebwe is only averaging 8.1 points and 7 rebounds per game, which are both significant dips from last season. He's also seen a decrease in minutes with Gabe Osabuohien playing better all-around basketball. Tshiebwe only saw seven minutes and registered just one point in the first half vs Kansas. He ended the game with three points and five rebounds in 18 minutes of action.

West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins talked about Tshiebwe's early-season struggles and is optimistic that he will come out of his current slump.

"It's hard to make shots when you don't look where you're shooting," Huggins said. "That's not a knock on Oscar, that has been a problem with bigs for a long time. You've got to have your head on the rim and we're worried about the guy that's guarding us more than we are scoring the ball. He was that way at the beginning of last year and then we continued to work on it and work on it. He got better as the season went on. It's hard to make it if you don't look at where you're shooting."

Part of Tshiebwe's struggles is due to the lack of physicality that he has in the paint on both ends of the floor. He doesn't take the ball up strong on the offensive end and is getting pushed around on the defensive end.

When asked if he is playing with the same physicality as he played with as a freshman, Huggins answered, "No. He's not being as physical, he's not running the way he did a year ago. I think that'll change. I think that he'll snap out of it."

For the Mountaineers to be successful and play the style of basketball that they want to play, they need Tshiebwe to get out of this funk that he is in and get back to bullying people like we have become accustomed to seeing. West Virginia should be dominating teams on the glass and on points in the paint, but that just hasn't been the case so far.

At some point, we may see Osabuohien start to take over more of Tshiebwe's minutes if things don't begin to improve. As talented as Oscar is, Huggins can't have him out there on the floor for 25 minutes a game if he is not being as productive as some of the other bigs. It will be interesting to see how he bounces back after the Christmas break.

You can follow us for future coverage by clicking "Follow" on the page's top righthand corner. Also, be sure to like us on Facebook & Twitter:

Facebook - @WVUonSI

Twitter - @SI_WVU and Schuyler Callihan at @Callihan_.

Add us as a preferred source on Google