Rams’ Fatts shows he’s freshman phenom
PITTSBURGH – Trae Young, the famous frosh, was dribbling up court when another freshman, not nearly so famous, picked his pocket and promptly dropped in a three-point bomb. Meet Fatts Russell.
Rhode Island beat Oklahoma 83-78 in overtime Thursday, and much of the thanks belongs to the freshman named Fatts who introduced himself to America in the NCAA tournament’s first game of the first round.
Young is widely expected to leave Oklahoma for the NBA. And Fatts? He and his Rams will face Duke on Saturday in the second round.
Russell’s steal-and-three wasn’t decisive — it gave Rhode Island a 55-50 lead that it wouldn’t hold in regulation — but the play will remain memorable as emblematic of the day.
“I told him when I recruited him: The only point guard I saw better than him at the Peach Jam last year was Trae Young,” Rams coach Dan Hurley said afterward of scouting Russell at the summer showcase. “And he told me I was wrong about that and he was going to prove me wrong today. And he put on a show.”
Hurley stuck with Russell through much of the second half and overtime, though he hadn’t played as much through the regular season on the senior-laden Rams.
“I just try to get in and give the team whatever they need,” said Russell, who scored 15 points. “We have a lot of great seniors on this team, so my role hasn’t been as big as I may have wanted it to be. … Coach has a lot of confidence in me. Every time I get in the game, he doesn’t tell me not to be myself. They tell me to be myself. Myself is confident.”
Senior guard Jared Terrell said may- be America was surprised, but the Rams weren’t.
“We see him do that every day,” Terrell said. “That’s nothing new to us, but to see him do it on the national stage, it’s great.”
The Rams’ game plan was to limit Young to 15 shots and let the other Sooners beat them. Young ultimately took 18 shots, which was right on target given overtime.
“It felt like if we could funnel the ball to those others enough that we’d have a great chance to win,” Hurley said.
Russell matched up against Young on defense for parts of the game.
“First, I want to say Trae Young’s a very good player,” Russell said. “But we just tried to contain him the whole time. We didn’t want to change our style of play and not be aggressive against him just because of who he is. We just tried to contain him, and it worked.”
Young scored 28 points, right at his average of 27.4 points per game that led the nation.
“We knew he would make incredibly tough shots,” Hurley said. “The kid has no weakness and it’s going to be an amazing NBA career ahead for him. It was a pleasure to — I played against Allen Iverson and Ray Allen in college. It’s a pleasure to be on the court with a guy that good and that great and compete against him. I’m proud of the way our guys rose to the challenge.”
Young was only 3-for-9 from three and the Sooners overall were just 4for-20 from three. Meanwhile, the Rams were 11-for-28, including three threepointers each from Russell, Terrell and E.C. Matthews.
Matthews, another senior guard, hit the go-ahead three-pointer in overtime and another that helped to put the game away. When the ball was in the air on that first one, Hurley said, “it’s almost like you’re saying to the basketball gods, like, please take of this guy. Everything he’s been through with the injuries and the heart that that kid has. … It’s beyond even feeling good about winning. It’s just he deserved that.”
Actually, it was when Matthews was hurt early in the season that Russell got some of his most extended playing time. “He was electrifying” then, Hurley said, “and put on similar performances” to Thursday’s.
Early in the season, of course, is when Young was electrifying the nation. The Sooners ended up losing nine of their last 11, but they began 12-1 as Young announced himself to the world.
“I made the big mistake of watching their early-season games first” in scouting the Sooners, Hurley said. “And I didn’t sleep for a day and half. … I coached the J.R. Smiths and Tristan Thompsons as a high school coach, and he’s as special as anyone I’ve ever been on the court with.”
So will it be the NBA or another season in Norman?
“Right now, I’m not worried about that,” Young said. “Right now my focus is my teammates. Those are my brothers, and those are the people I care about most right now. It’s tough after a loss to think of anything besides that.”
And then in the next breath: “But when you get back to me later this week, I’ll sit down with my family and we’ll discuss that. But right now that’s not my main focus. My main focus is my teammates.”
It all started so well for the Sooners and ended with so many losses — 14, counting Thursday’s — that Young can scarcely comprehend it.
“I hate losing,” he said. “That’s not in my DNA, losing. I tried — I left everything I could, and I know my teammates did as well — everything they could on that floor. … This is all — this is a chapter in my book. This season, that chapter is closed now. They got to move on to, I mean, whatever’s next. Whatever’s next for me.”