Better off without him? Young heard chatter
Trae Young has been a regular viewer of OU basketball during his NBA rookie season
T rae Young, when his Atlanta Hawks don't have a game on the same night, has been a regular viewer of Oklahoma basketball in his first season removed from the program.
“Sometimes I kinda cringe like, `Ah, you should've gone to the corner,” Young said. “Things like that. I'm still critiquing, still on the court with them.”
Young also sees the similarity between this season and last, when both teams sprinted through nonconference action before stumbling in Big 12 play.
“But I feel like they' re gonna make a late push ,” Young said of OU, which sits 4-9 in league play. “Hopefully they get in the tournament and make a run at it.”
Young is back in his
home state this week, having recently announced a youth basketball partnership in Oklahoma City.
The Norman native reflected on his freshman season at OU in a conversation with The Oklahoman.
Q: You mentioned the similarities between this season and last with the second half slide. How can this team overcome that in these final five games?
A: “They're much older now than the team we had last year. If they make the tournament, I think that's going to help them because of all the maturity they have.”
Did you hear the chatter earlier this season when some said OU might be a better team with you gone?
“Yeah, I did hear it. I told people that asked me that question just how much it doesn't even make sense. It's just a different type of team. Our team last year was different than the Final Four team. They have more veterans on their team, and we only had one senior last year. We were a very young team, a team that hadn't made the tournament the year before. Now they have two grad transfers, three or four seniors. I'm not saying one team was better than the other. It's just different.”
A year removed, what do you make of the perceived tension that surrounded you and your teammates at the end of the season?
“I think that was definitely because we were losing and things weren't going good. That was something that people who aren' t in the locker room or don't see us off the court just wanted to say and run with. I don't think it's cool at all that people would say something like that.”
What will the program mean to you moving forward?
“Always will have a place in my heart. Every time I'm here I go up. I was up there (Sunday) night when I landed at 5 o'clock. I go straight to Oklahoma. It has a close place in my heart and it's one of my favorite places to go.”