Honors keep coming for Young

Trae Young became a Consensus AllAmerica selection Tuesday by being named an Associated Press first-team AllAmerican.

NORMAN — The honors keep coming for Trae Young.

Tuesday, Young became a Consensus All-America selection by being named an Associated Press first-team All-American.

Young had previously earned All-America honors from Sporting News, the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the United States Basketball Writers Association.

Young is the 11th Consensus All-America First-Team selection in Sooners’ history and the first since Buddy Hield in 2016.

Others were Thomas Churchill (1929), Bud Browning (1935), Allie Paine (1944), Gerald Tucker (1947), Wayman Tisdale (1983, 1984, 1985), Stacey King (1989) and Blake Griffin (2009).

Tisdale was the only other Oklahoma player to earn the honor as a freshman.

Young’s season was historic as he became the first collegiate player to lead the nation on both scoring (27.4) and assists (8.7) in the same season.

The Sooners started off red hot, moving to No. 4 in the nation after a 14-2 start.

But after that, things got more difficult. Oklahoma went just 4-12 from that point on and finished the season with an overtime loss to Rhode Island in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Teams adjusted to Young late in Big 12 play, making it much more difficult for him to find room to work.

“He’s had an interesting year, probably as interesting as anyone can have,” Sooners coach Lon Kruger said after the season ended. “He battled well all year long.”

His scoring average was the highest in both OU and Big 12 history. His assist average set a Sooners record while coming in second in Big 12 history to only Oklahoma State’s Doug Gottlieb.

Young, a 6-foot-2 point guard from Norman North, also became the first major-conference player in Division I history to have top 800 points and 250 assists in the season, finishing with 876 points and 279 assists.

After the season, Young declared for the NBA Draft.

In December, he tied an NCAA record with 22 assists in a win over Northwestern State.

He earned the USBWA’s Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year Award and is a finalist for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year.

All five All-America teams had the same five players on the first team.

Young was joined by Arizona’s DeAndre Ayton, Duke’s Marvin Bagley III, Villanova’s Jalen Brunson and Kansas’ Devonte’ Graham.

Young, Ayton and Bagley made up the first freshman trio ever to earn AP first-team honors in the same season.

[AP PHOTO] Trae Young is a Consensus All-American after being picked Tuesday by The Associated Press. Young, who played one season for Oklahoma, is entering the NBA Draft.