Young's decision helped spur Sooners turnaround
NORMAN — A year ago Friday, Trae Young’s attentions were divided a bit as he prepared to face off against his school’s biggest rival the next day.
Earlier in the week, the Norman North star had been presented with his McDonald’s All-American jersey. Then on Feb. 16, he made the announcement that he was committing to Oklahoma, deciding that staying close to home to star for the Sooners made more sense than going to basketball blue bloods Kansas or Kentucky, up the road to Oklahoma State or following in his father’s footsteps to Texas Tech.
A year later, Young is once again preparing for a big-time rivalry game, this time leading the No. 23-ranked Sooners against Texas at Lloyd Noble Center (11 a.m., ESPN).
“It’s crazy,” Young said. “A lot has changed. I’m a different Trae now. Last year at this time, I was getting ready for Norman High the day before, now I’m getting ready for Texas.
“A lot more people know who I am, which is a good thing — I’m trying to be a great role model. It’s just a different me and hopefully a better me.”
Though he’s slipped a little bit with the Sooners’ recent four-game losing streak, Young continues to take college basketball — and basketball period — by storm.
ESPN runs a ticker with his stats during recent OU telecasts. Virtually everybody who’s anybody in the sport — from LeBron James earlier in the week to Steve Nash to Stephen Curry — have commented on Young’s stellar season. Earlier this week, Young received a call from Oscar Robertson, who gave him some advice.
But only the stage has really changed for Young.
His game remains close to the same, just on a bigger stage. At Norman North, he averaged 42.6 points and 4.1 assists. With the Sooners, 29.1 points and 9.3 assists. Both places, he built a reputation for letting shots fly all over the court and making defenders look silly at times as he worked to create extra space or drove to the bucket.
While he wasn’t the kind of facilitator he’s become with the Sooners, Young still flashed the skills with the Timberwolves that have made him the leading assist man in college basketball. He’s not even being defended much differently.
In The Oklahoman, the day after Young committed, was this paragraph:
“Likewise, Young isn’t likely to see junk defenses designed to slow down only him when he gets on the floor with a group of players who can also score consistently.”
That lasted about two or three weeks into the season when Young showed just how deadly of a scorer he is, and opposing coaches started indeed throwing junk defenses at Young to try to slow him down.
While not much has changed for Young, plenty has changed for the Sooners. A year ago, Oklahoma was 9-16 and 3-10 in the Big 12, just playing out the string in a disappointing season a year after making a Final Four run.
The next home game after Young committed, there was a paid attendance of 10,181 at Lloyd Noble Center, though the actual crowd was much smaller. For the final home game of the season, the estimated attendance was 5,938.
Lloyd Noble Center is sold out Saturday and has been for virtually all Big 12 home games. The arena is sold out for the remaining two home games as well.
Young has added plenty of extra energy to Oklahoma basketball. That includes away from Lloyd Noble Center where opponents are averaging 13,531 fans to see their team take on Young and the Sooners.
That’s the highest road attendance in the league by nearly 1,000. Kansas averages 12,566 on the road.
Even with this recent four-game losing streak, the Sooners are 16-9 and 6-7 in the conference. Though they need to turn things around and get back on the winning side, don’t try to convince sophomore Kameron McGusty that things are bad now.
“We’re actually winning games. We’re actually going to be in the tournament. We’re actually competing for a Big 12 title, which is something we weren’t able to do last year.” McGusty said, though the latter appears to be out the window with this recent stretch of struggles.
“Being here my second year, I’m kind of comfortable in this environment, not even just on the court but off the court with our teammates. We joke around, we laugh.”