Photo by: Dominion Post
Pa Prep Writer White Labels Hoop Signee Tshiebwe a ‘Unique Player’
March 07, 2019 01:20 PM | Men's Basketball, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Compared to Eastern Pennsylvania, the western portion of the state has always lagged behind when it comes to top-shelf college basketball prospects.
From Philadelphia alone, you could come up with a Who's Who of basketball greats going back to Overbrook High's Wilt Chamberlain and continuing into more recent times with Lower Merion's Kobe Bryant.
Perhaps the most prolific high school player in modern Pennsylvania history was Carlisle's Billy Owens, former Delaware County Daily Times sportswriter Mark Hostutler's somewhat controversial choice as the state's best-ever prep boys basketball player in his recent book Heads of State: Pennsylvania's Greatest High School Basketball Players of the Modern Era.
Closer to Morgantown, the majority of the best prep basketball players from nearby Western Pa. are now either dead or are living in nursing homes, based on Rich Emert's 2012 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette listing of the Steel City's top players.
The only contemporary player to make Emert's list was Schenley's DeJuan Blair, who starred for Jamie Dixon at Pitt in the mid-2000s. Before that, it was Shaler's Danny Fortson, one of Bob Huggins' best players at Cincinnati.
Not much has changed in Western Pa. since then - that is until Oscar Tshiebwe, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived on the scene last year.
According to longtime Post-Gazette high school writer Mike White, Fortson and Blair are the two players who immediately come to mind when he watches West Virginia signee Tshiebwe play for Kennedy Catholic High, located in Hermitage, Pennsylvania.
Kennedy Catholic is just outside the Post-Gazette coverage area in District 10 so Tshiebwe won't be on the P-G's Fab 5 team unveiled later this spring, but he's clearly one of the best players from this area of the state in the last 30 years.
"He's really kind of a very unique player, at least from these parts," White admitted recently.
Tshiebwe is only the second McDonald's All-American to come out of Western Pa. since 1977 when McDonald's teams were first picked. Ironically, the other is another Huggins signee, Fortson.
"He's the most physically imposing player I've seen since Fortson," White said. "As far as a high school kid, and I mentioned Fortson, but this kid has a better body than Forston without a doubt. He has an NBA body right now."
Depending upon what you read, Tshiebwe is listed anywhere from 6-feet-7 to 6-feet-9 and anywhere from 230 to 250 pounds. As we learned with Sagaba Konate, another Kennedy Catholic product, sometimes those heights and weights can get a little bit embellished.
Fortson, too, was probably closer to 6-6 than his listed 6-7, as was Blair. In White's eyes, Tshiebwe looks to be a legitimate 6-feet-8, which puts him in the height category with Maurice Lucas from Schenley and Armon Gilliam from Bethel Park.
Lucas went on to star at Marquette and later with the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA while Gilliam was a first-round NBA draft choice out of UNLV after first starring at Independence (Kan.) Community College.
Throw in Johnstown's Pat Cummings, who played for Gale Catlett at Cincinnati before later having a productive NBA career, Braddock's Billy Knight, and perhaps even Brashear's Sam Clancy, and that's pretty much it when it comes to Western Pa.'s top bigs of the last 40, 50 years.
And now there is Tshiebwe, the best Western Pennsylvania basketball recruit to sign with West Virginia since Uniontown guard Wil Robinson, who starred at Laurel Highlands High in the late 1960s.
"(Tshiebwe's) second jump is unbelievable," White marveled. "He shows signs sometimes that he can hit a mid-range shot, and I think he's unselfish, too. He needs to develop that shot more and his ball handling, but my goodness, physically … and he's probably the best dunker I've seen in a long time."
White rates Blair a better passer and ball handler than Tshiebwe right now, but Tshiebwe is much more athletic than the former Pitt standout. "He's a different type of player than Blair," White mentioned.
Huggins says Tshiebwe, the first McDonald's All-American to sign out of high school with West Virginia since forward Chris Brooks in 1986, is also a different type of player than Fortson as well.
"Danny wasn't a great runner, and he wasn't much of a jumper, but Danny had an incredible heart and an incredible desire to be great," Huggins said. "The things that Danny did to prepare himself were unlike anybody I've ever had. I hope Oscar has that. It seems like he does, but you can't really tell until you get your hands on them.
"He's physically more talented than Danny, but Danny had the greatest hands I've ever seen," Huggins continued. "I had an assistant who said Danny could catch a BB in the dark. I never saw him drop a ball."
West Virginia fans are already growing anxious to see how Tshiebwe is going to fit in with 6-foot-10 forward Derek Culver in the Mountaineer front court next season. Culver, coming off a recent 22-point, 21-rebound double-double against TCU, is one of the best young inside players in the Big 12 and will likely be named to the conference's all-rookie team next week.
There also remains the possibility of a Tshiebwe-Culver-Konate front line if Konate opts to return for his senior year.
Having those three next year could give Huggins a front court comparable to some of the best ones he had at Cincinnati.
"We should be able to hold our own on the glass," Huggins said.
Based on what he's seen of Tshiebwe in person, as well what Tshiebwe did on the AAU circuit going head-to-head against the nation's top-rated prep center James Wiseman last summer, White is confident Tshiebwe will be an immediate impact performer for the Mountaineers in 2020.
"He kind of dominated (Wiseman) and was dominant all summer," White said. "I think he's just really good."
Briefly:
West Virginia's other early signee, 6-foot-2 guard Miles McBride from Archbishop Moeller High in Cincinnati, also has Huggins excited.
Last week, the veteran coach referenced former Mountaineer guard Tarik Phillip when describing McBride.
"McBride is good," Huggins said. "He plays on a great team. Maybe the three best players in the state play on that team."
McBride once played football at Moeller so he possesses some of the toughness and physicality West Virginia is sorely needing in its backcourt. "The other guy I had there from Moeller, Bobby Brannen, was also tough like him," Huggins said.
The coach anticipates both players being available when the team assembles this summer to tour Spain. That will afford them the opportunity to get a head start on things before the team begins fall workouts.
Huggins indicated that he will also continue to evaluate prospects throughout the remainder of the spring with the possibility of adding more players to next year's roster.
From Philadelphia alone, you could come up with a Who's Who of basketball greats going back to Overbrook High's Wilt Chamberlain and continuing into more recent times with Lower Merion's Kobe Bryant.
Perhaps the most prolific high school player in modern Pennsylvania history was Carlisle's Billy Owens, former Delaware County Daily Times sportswriter Mark Hostutler's somewhat controversial choice as the state's best-ever prep boys basketball player in his recent book Heads of State: Pennsylvania's Greatest High School Basketball Players of the Modern Era.
Closer to Morgantown, the majority of the best prep basketball players from nearby Western Pa. are now either dead or are living in nursing homes, based on Rich Emert's 2012 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette listing of the Steel City's top players.
The only contemporary player to make Emert's list was Schenley's DeJuan Blair, who starred for Jamie Dixon at Pitt in the mid-2000s. Before that, it was Shaler's Danny Fortson, one of Bob Huggins' best players at Cincinnati.
Not much has changed in Western Pa. since then - that is until Oscar Tshiebwe, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived on the scene last year.
According to longtime Post-Gazette high school writer Mike White, Fortson and Blair are the two players who immediately come to mind when he watches West Virginia signee Tshiebwe play for Kennedy Catholic High, located in Hermitage, Pennsylvania.
Kennedy Catholic is just outside the Post-Gazette coverage area in District 10 so Tshiebwe won't be on the P-G's Fab 5 team unveiled later this spring, but he's clearly one of the best players from this area of the state in the last 30 years.
"He's really kind of a very unique player, at least from these parts," White admitted recently.
Tshiebwe is only the second McDonald's All-American to come out of Western Pa. since 1977 when McDonald's teams were first picked. Ironically, the other is another Huggins signee, Fortson.
"He's the most physically imposing player I've seen since Fortson," White said. "As far as a high school kid, and I mentioned Fortson, but this kid has a better body than Forston without a doubt. He has an NBA body right now."
Depending upon what you read, Tshiebwe is listed anywhere from 6-feet-7 to 6-feet-9 and anywhere from 230 to 250 pounds. As we learned with Sagaba Konate, another Kennedy Catholic product, sometimes those heights and weights can get a little bit embellished.
Fortson, too, was probably closer to 6-6 than his listed 6-7, as was Blair. In White's eyes, Tshiebwe looks to be a legitimate 6-feet-8, which puts him in the height category with Maurice Lucas from Schenley and Armon Gilliam from Bethel Park.
Lucas went on to star at Marquette and later with the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA while Gilliam was a first-round NBA draft choice out of UNLV after first starring at Independence (Kan.) Community College.
Throw in Johnstown's Pat Cummings, who played for Gale Catlett at Cincinnati before later having a productive NBA career, Braddock's Billy Knight, and perhaps even Brashear's Sam Clancy, and that's pretty much it when it comes to Western Pa.'s top bigs of the last 40, 50 years.
And now there is Tshiebwe, the best Western Pennsylvania basketball recruit to sign with West Virginia since Uniontown guard Wil Robinson, who starred at Laurel Highlands High in the late 1960s.
"(Tshiebwe's) second jump is unbelievable," White marveled. "He shows signs sometimes that he can hit a mid-range shot, and I think he's unselfish, too. He needs to develop that shot more and his ball handling, but my goodness, physically … and he's probably the best dunker I've seen in a long time."
White rates Blair a better passer and ball handler than Tshiebwe right now, but Tshiebwe is much more athletic than the former Pitt standout. "He's a different type of player than Blair," White mentioned.
Huggins says Tshiebwe, the first McDonald's All-American to sign out of high school with West Virginia since forward Chris Brooks in 1986, is also a different type of player than Fortson as well.
"Danny wasn't a great runner, and he wasn't much of a jumper, but Danny had an incredible heart and an incredible desire to be great," Huggins said. "The things that Danny did to prepare himself were unlike anybody I've ever had. I hope Oscar has that. It seems like he does, but you can't really tell until you get your hands on them.
"He's physically more talented than Danny, but Danny had the greatest hands I've ever seen," Huggins continued. "I had an assistant who said Danny could catch a BB in the dark. I never saw him drop a ball."
West Virginia fans are already growing anxious to see how Tshiebwe is going to fit in with 6-foot-10 forward Derek Culver in the Mountaineer front court next season. Culver, coming off a recent 22-point, 21-rebound double-double against TCU, is one of the best young inside players in the Big 12 and will likely be named to the conference's all-rookie team next week.
There also remains the possibility of a Tshiebwe-Culver-Konate front line if Konate opts to return for his senior year.
Having those three next year could give Huggins a front court comparable to some of the best ones he had at Cincinnati.
"We should be able to hold our own on the glass," Huggins said.
Based on what he's seen of Tshiebwe in person, as well what Tshiebwe did on the AAU circuit going head-to-head against the nation's top-rated prep center James Wiseman last summer, White is confident Tshiebwe will be an immediate impact performer for the Mountaineers in 2020.
"He kind of dominated (Wiseman) and was dominant all summer," White said. "I think he's just really good."
Briefly:
West Virginia's other early signee, 6-foot-2 guard Miles McBride from Archbishop Moeller High in Cincinnati, also has Huggins excited.Last week, the veteran coach referenced former Mountaineer guard Tarik Phillip when describing McBride.
"McBride is good," Huggins said. "He plays on a great team. Maybe the three best players in the state play on that team."
McBride once played football at Moeller so he possesses some of the toughness and physicality West Virginia is sorely needing in its backcourt. "The other guy I had there from Moeller, Bobby Brannen, was also tough like him," Huggins said.
The coach anticipates both players being available when the team assembles this summer to tour Spain. That will afford them the opportunity to get a head start on things before the team begins fall workouts.
Huggins indicated that he will also continue to evaluate prospects throughout the remainder of the spring with the possibility of adding more players to next year's roster.
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