Oklahoma freshman point guard Trae Young wasn’t exactly an unknown commodity when he arrived on campus from nearby Norman, Okla. North High School.
Young was a McDonald’s All America and a member of USA Basketball’s U18 team that won a gold medal in the FIBA Americas tournament in Argentina and a member of same Nike travel team as Missouri’s 6-10 recruit Michael Porter, Jr., which won the 2016 Nike Peach Jam for elite EBYL teams.
Young chose to play basketball in his backyard, choosing Oklahoma over Kansas and Kentucky. But no one could have expected him to make the bigger impact of any freshman in college basketball, including DeAndre Ayton of Arizona, Michael Bagley of Duke and Collin Sexton of Alabama.
Young has been on fire during the Sooners’ 9-1 start that has resulted in the Sooners’ unexpected appearance in the AP Top 25 poll. Young, who is averaging 28.8 points per game and leads the NCAA in scoring, drew comparisons to Seth Curry last month after he scored 43 points and had seven assists during a win over Oregon in the PK 80 in Portland. He ripped Wichita State for 29 points in an upset road win over the third-ranked Shockers last Saturday. But his latest performance against Northwestern State was, as his coach Lon Kruger said, “off the charts.” Young went off for 26 points and a Big 12 record 22 assists as the 17th-ranked Sooners blew away visiting Northwestern State, 105-68, Tuesday night.
Young is the first player in the last 20 years with at least 20 points and 20 assists in the same game. Oklahoma has now won seven straight games and have scored 90 points seven times so far. His 22 assists tied the major college record set by Tony Fairley of Charleston Southern against Armstrong State in 1987 and matched by Southern’s Avery Johnson in 1988 and Syracuse Sherman Douglas against Providence in 1989.
“I give a lot of credit to my teammates,” Young said. “I wouldn’t be able to make an assist without my teammates knocking down shots.” They did a tremendous job of knocking down shots.”
Young scored 20 or more points for the ninth consecutive game, the longest streak at Oklahoma since, Buddy Held, who won the National Player of the Year did so during 2016 season, when the Sooners advanced to the Final Four.
“A long time ago they talked about Magic Johnson and how he knew where all nine players on the floor,” Northwestern State coach Mike McContathy said. “He (Young) knows where all nine players are ”
