Sportsbooks Favor Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe to Win the 2022 John Wooden Award

The 2022 John R. Wooden Award continues to be competitive. We saw Drew Timme open the season as the favorite, but a few players surpassed him as the top contenders. Last month, we saw Ochai Agbaji in position to win college basketball player of the year.

That didn’t last long as Kentucky center Oscar Tshiebwe is the new odds-on favorite to win the 2022 John Wooden Award. This award goes to the most outstanding player in college basketball.

SportsBetting.ag gives us the college basketball player of the year odds. Let’s check them out.

We’ve seen multiple changes since our latest John Wooden Award update. Ochai Agbaji has gone from (+600) to (+1000), while Keegan Murray has seen a big jump. The Iowa forward could be a dark horse for the Wooden Award.

Oscar Tshiebwe, Kofi Cockburn, and Johnny Davis remain top contenders for the college basketball player of the year. Let’s talk about why Tshiebwe is the new odds-on favorite.

Following a disappointing sophomore season with West Virginia, Oscar Tshiebwe transferred to Kentucky. Kentucky had a rough 2020-21 season, but they entered this season as a top 10 team.

Tshiebwe opened the season with a pair of 20-rebound games. Perhaps the most impressive thing about that was he pulled down double-digit offensive rebounds in each game. Overall, he opened the season with eight straight 10+ rebound games. That stretch also included three games with 20+ points.

After that stretch, Tshiebwe went off with 14 points and 28 rebounds against Western Kentucky. Then, we saw his best two-game stretch of the season.

Tshiebwe followed that up with a rough three-game stretch. He failed to score 10 points in back-to-back games, and Kentucky lost the third game against Auburn. Since then, Tshiebwe has been playing some of his best basketball.

He led Kentucky on a six-game win streak, including an 80-62 victory over No. 5 Kansas. That game swayed the college basketball player of the year odds, as Tshiebwe went for 17 points and 14 rebounds. Meanwhile, Ochai Agbaji had 13 points on 4/14 field goal shooting.

Last week, Kentucky lost on the road to Tennessee, but they recovered to beat No. 25 Alabama. Overall, here are Tshiebwe’s numbers on the season.

Tshiebwe leads the country in rebounding. Only twice has he failed to pull down at least 10 rebounds. His presence in the paint is a big reason Kentucky is among the National Championship contenders.

He fits the bill to win the 2022 college basketball player of the year award. Tshiebwe is one of the most dominant players in the country, playing for a National Championship contender.

Unless a player comes out of nowhere, the 2022 John Wooden Award winner will come from this list. Surprisingly, Drew Timme and Kofi Cockburn are the only players to enter the season as a Wooden Award All-American.

Cockburn has been among the top contenders for college basketball player of the year all season. If Oscar Tshiebwe slips, Cockburn will be there to steal the award.

Players like Max Abmas and David Roddy might not receive much attention because they play for mid-major schools. However, we can’t take them lightly. Abmas was a beast in the 2021 March Madness Tournament, while Roddy is averaging 19.8 points.

Speaking of March Madness, it’ll be here in less than a month. Make sure you check out the top March Madness betting sites to get ahead of the game.