Morgantown, West Virginia – Former West Virginia Mountaineers five star forward Oscar Tshiebwe has found his new home at Kentucky and is having a very successful season with the Wildcats, averaging 16.3 points, 14.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game.
In a just-released article on The Athletic, Tshiebwe opened up about his reasons for leaving West Virginia University last season.
Tshiebwe admitted that he wanted to leave West Virginia following his freshman season, cried every day, got out of shape as a sophomore because he didn’t even want to put the Mountaineers jersey on but was convinced to continue playing at WVU instead of transferring.
Finally, after confiding in his mother, he decided to just get his stuff and leave.
“When there’s something in your heart that you’re holding and you can’t let it go,” Tshiebwe said, “I did not want to put that jersey on. God heard my cry for help and he said, get your stuff. It was a tough decision to leave. People say, ‘You’re ruining your life.’ People say, ‘If you make that decision, you’re done.’”
Tshiebwe then made strong accusations against West Virginia’s legendary coach Bob Huggins: “Coach Huggins told me he was going to ruin my life if I did that. He was going to say all these different things to NBA GMs so nobody would ever want me. He said a lot of negative things about me to Coach Calipari. He said I got caught smoking weed. He said I got caught with a lot of different women. Crazy stuff I didn’t know about. I told Coach Calipari, ‘If you believe those things, that means I cannot be at Kentucky. But you know me, you recruited me since high school, and I’ve been a faithful kid. I respect every human being.’”
Huggins responded to The Athletic, saying, “That’s absolutely not the truth. Some people came and got him and took him to Lexington, and to this day I don’t know who they are. I don’t really care who they are. But I never said any of that to Oscar. I’d never say anything even remotely like that. The kid’s having a great year. Obviously, he and Calipari are hitting it off. It’s all good. So I don’t know why Oscar would ever bring up something that didn’t happen. Because the truth of the matter is there’s a whole lot of people who could get drug through the mud. He got what he wanted. I never tried to stop him. I never called him and said, ‘Hey, man, you’re making a mistake.’ None of that. Absolutely none of that. I did not speak to the kid. I can take a lie detector.”
