Game turns physical early COMMENTARY
Trae Young touched his hand to his lip, then gave it a look. Only a few minutes into his first Bedlam game, he knew he’d been hit hard enough to bleed. He thought he’d better check to make sure.
Oklahoma State might’ve drawn first blood, but Young delivered the knockout punch. OU 109, OSU 89.
On a night the Cowboys faced stiff odds— how to go on the road and beat a top 10 team with arguably the best player in college basketball— they decided to get physical with Young.
Turns out, he’s the bully.
Young scored 27 points and dished 10 assists, which will do little to hurt
his nation-leading averages in both categories. He added nine rebounds and darn near had a triple-double.
It would’ve been the first points-rebounds-assists triple-double in OU history.
It would’ve been just another bit of magic.
And to think, the Cowboys threw all the muscle that they had at Young.
“We just wanted to make it tough on him offensively and defensively,” OSU point guard Brandon Averette said. “That was the game plan.”
Muscling up Young seems the smart thing to do for opponents. He’s listed at 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, but that might be a big-rocks-in-his-pockets weight.
Young is spindly. Think Steph Curry. Thing is, Young plays the way Curry does, too. The passing. The shooting. The dribbling. And the Cowboys were trying to put the kibosh on as much of that as they could.
Their methodology? Physicality.
From the opening tip, Mike Boynton sicced Tavarius Shine on Young. Not point guard Kendall Smith, who is 6-3, 190 pounds, but Shine, who is 6-6, 200 pounds. That meant Young gave up four inches and 20 pounds (or more) to the guy guarding him.
And Shine was in his face and on his hip at every turn. When OSU would shoot free throws, Shine would start guarding Young before the ball was ever rebounded or inbounded by the Sooners.
You’ve heard of guys being picked up 94 feet from the basket.
This was something else.
Then again, that’s what Young is— something else. Teams are going to be forced to take all sorts of unconventional tactics against him. He’s seen a box-and-one defense already this season — remember, this is major-college basketball, not Oklahoma preps— and you have to think the extreme measures will continue.
“The thing you try to do is limit his efficiency,” Boynton said. “He’s got such a great rate of usage. He’s got such freedom in their system. He’s gonna score. He’s gonna make plays for other guys.
“You’ve got to try to limit his efficiency.”
Give it to the Cowboys — they tried. They threw double teams at him as soon as he crossed midcourt. They trapped where they could. They got hands and forearms and elbows and more on him as much as possible.
Anything to make him think twice about driving or shooting.
It didn’t work. After a chippy end to the first half— Young and Cam McGriff got tangled at one point, then Young and Kendall Smith looked to exchange words heading into the locker room— Young seemed even more resolved. He started the second half aggressively. Driving to the basket. Pushing the ball up court. Accelerating the tempo.
At one point during those opening minutes, Young had his own personal 8-0 run. He hit a tough floater from darn near the free-throw line, then splashed a deep three over Shine, then drove into the teeth of the defense, hit a layup and was fouled.
It led to a 22-9 run. Just like that, the Sooners led three touchdowns.
They took that 21-point lead when Shine committed his fifth foul. The game hadn’t even reached the sub-12-minute timeout, and the Cowboys lost their best defender.
Say this for OSU’s defense — it forced Young into six turnovers, which isn’t his season high but is in the ballpark. The Cowboys got some of what they wanted out of their muscle-up strategy, but it wasn’t enough to swing the outcome.
Wasn’t enough to really even slow Young and the Sooners all that much.
The Cowboys were physical and aggressive — but the Sooners and Young were the ones whotook it to them. It’s not the first time. Suspect it won’t be the last either.