Dick Weiss on NCAA Tournament
PITTSBURGH, Pa.—Trae Young has been the most intriguing name in college basketball all season. Oklahoma’s 6-2 freshman guard, who grew up close to the Sooners’ campus in Norman, is the first player ever to lead Division I in scoring, averaging 27.4 points per game; and assists, averaging 8.8. He made such a huge splash, he even drew comparisons from the media here to the late, great Pistol Pete Maravich, who grew up in Aliquippa, Pa., just 10 miles from the PPG Paints Arena in this steel city.
Maravich was a one-man army for LSU from 1967 through 1970. Playing for his father and given a total green light, he was the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer with 3,667 points and averaging 44.2 points in three varsity seasons before the incorporation of the three-point shot and shot clock. ‘’That’s unbelievable,’’ Young said. “To even be mentioned in the same breath with some like Pistol Pete Maravich,’’ Young said. “That’s a legend right there.’’
Maravich’s individual brilliance was undeniable, but one thing he never did was lift his otherwise limited SEC team to a spot in an NCAA tournament in the days where each conference only received one bid.
Young has had his magical moments too, He was the first freshman in Big 12 history to score 800 points. He went off for 48 points Jan. 20 against Oklahoma and scoring 40 or more points five times. He also had 22 assists in a game against Northwestern State Dec. 20 and he received accolades from players like LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and Steph Curry when the Sooners got off to a 11-1 start.
But his star could only shine so brightly on a team that cratered out in Big 12 conference play and was reduced to a controversial 10th seed by the NCAA selection committee.
But it’s hard being on center stage in college basketball all the time when your team is married to making shots and you get limited help from your teammates, as Young found out again Thursday afternoon. He was held in check by Rhode Island guards Jeff Dowtin and Fatts Russell for long stretches but had enough some electric moments and finished with 28 points and seven assists in an 83-78 NCAA first round loss to the seventh seeded Rams.
Young made all four of his shots in the first half but struggled early in the second half before coming to life in the final 6:51 of regulation, scoring his team’s final seven points, including a pair of free throws with 14.5 seconds left, to force overtime. But he disappeared in OT, missing on a couple of deep three- point attempts and didn’t have a field goal until 12.5 left in the game, finishing 9 for 18 from the field and 3 of 9 from the three.
This was likely Young’s final game as an amateur. Young, who has a unique set of skills, is expected to declare for the NBA draft, where he should be a high lottery pick.
Maybe he will be the second coming of Curry in the future. But he was just another frustrated 19-year old teenager who was the darling of college basketball during the first month and a half but lost nine of his last 11 games on a Big 12 team many thought shouldn’t been here in the first place. “I hate losing,’’ he said. “I hate losing, that’s not in my DNA. I tried—I left every I could out there on the floor and I know my teammates did as well.
’’This season was a roller coaster. I mean, starting hot, cooling down, winning a few games, and going back to losing. It’s a roller coaster. It is tough. You never want it to end, but this is the biggest day in college basketball. Any team is capable of winning games in the tournament and we just came up a little short.’’
Young earned the respect of URI coach Danny Hurley, who gave him a hug when he ran into Young in the hallway outside the interview holding area.
“Our goal going into the game wasn’t necessarily to try to keep him under a certain scoring number,’’ Hurley said. “It was about field goal attempts. And through regulation, our goal was to keep him to 15 shots or less. I felt like if we could funnel the ball to those others that we’d have a great chance to win.
“He only ended up taking 18 shots with the extra five minutes. We knew he would make incredibly tough shots. The kid has no weaknesses is going it’s going to be an amazing NBA career ahead for him. I played against Allen Iverson, Ray Allen and Alonzo Mourning in college. It was a pleasure to be on the court with guys that good and it was great to compete against him. He’s like Barry Sanders in football. Every time he touches the ball, you think he’s going to score a touchdown.
“But our guys rose to the challenge.’’
Especially Russell, the 5-10, gassed up freshman from Philadelphia Imotep Charter’s five-time Pennsylvania 5A state championship program. “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 and he told me I was wrong about that and he was going to prove me wrong today and he put on a show.’’
Russell scored 15 points and made three 3’s off the bench in 21 minutes and he helped neutralize Young, who did not score for the final 9:51 of the first half and the first 13:09 of the second.
This was a huge day for the undervalued Atlantic 10, which won its second game in the tournament. The curtain has come down on the Trae Young era at Oklahoma. “This season, this is a chapter in my book,’’ he said. “This
