Young faces off against old friend

AUSTIN, TEXAS — During the recruiting process, much was made about Trae Young’s friendship with Michael Porter Jr.

Would the connection between the two be enough to lure Porter to Norman to join Young at Oklahoma? Would it be strong enough to lure Young away from home to join Porter at either Washington or, later, Missouri?

It turns out there was another star of the 2017 class that Young spent as much time consulting with as Porter through the recruiting process.

Saturday at the Frank Erwin Center, Young will

square off with that confidant when his Sooners face Texas and its freshman sensation, Mohamed Bamba.

“Me and Mo are really close so it’s going to be a fun, competitive battle, but he plays for Texas and I play for Oklahoma so we’re not going to like each other for 40 minutes,” Young said.

Young’s aversion to all things burnt orange is a recent development, cultivated mostly since Young committed to the Sooners nearly a year ago.

That shooting sleeve Young wears on his left arm?

That’s directly traceable to a Longhorn.

The first college team Young remembers dreaming of suiting up for?

Texas.

“I grew up the biggest Texas fan,” Young said. “I grew up wanting to go to Texas, so I know all about their history.”

Why, when his father went to Texas Tech and he grew up largely in Norman?

“A lot of my family is from Texas,” Young said. “I was always in Texas and whenever you grow up in Texas, around … Texas, you want to go to the biggest Texas school and UT was that so that was the reason why.”

So a decade ago, at the same time Blake Griffin was rolling through the Big 12, Young’s favorite player instead resided in Austin.

Young said he started wearing the shooting sleeve because of his admiration of and trying to emulate Texas’ A.J. Abrams.

He also says he loved watching point guard D.J. Augustin, who spent time with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015-16, when Augustin played for the Longhorns from 2006-08.

But by the time Bamba decided to come to Texas, committing last May, Young had already signed with the Sooners and his infatuation with the Longhorns was long gone.

Though they play different positions — Young as a 6-foot-2 point guard and Bamba as a 6-11 big man — the matchup between the two takes center stage when Oklahoma and Texas square off for the first time this season.

Where Bamba figures to have the biggest effect on the game is when the Sooners have the ball.

While Young is rewriting Oklahoma’s record books already, just 21 games into his first and probably only season with the Sooners, Bamba is doing the same for Texas in a similar situation.

Bamba already owns the Texas season blocks record after blocking seven Wednesday night against Texas Tech to run his season total to 95.

The Longhorns are 12th in the country in block percentage, while Oklahoma is 323rd and at the bottom of the Big 12 in the same category on the offensive end.

“You can’t get all the way into the lane without either shot faking or doing something different,” Young said. “You’ve got to shoot floaters. He’s got a 7-9 wingspan so you’ve just got to be ready for him to jump and try to block your shot.”