Oklahoma Sooners freshman point guard Trae Young is making a strong case for winning this season’s Naismith Men's College Player of the Year award. If he sustains the level of which he is playing, he’s likely to take home the honor down the road.
Young, a five-star recruit by Oklahoma out of Norman North High School, helped the No. 12 Sooners get their first win in conference play by dropping 39 points in a close 90-89 road win Saturday over the No. 10 TCU Horned Frogs. Young did almost all of the lifting on offense for the Sooners, as he also dished out 14 assists. He shot 9-of-23 from the field, 15-of-18 from the foul line, and 6-of-14 from the 3-point area.
With his incredible performance, Trae Young became just the second Division I player in 20 seasons to put up at least 30 points and 10 assists in a contest, per ESPN.
Trae Young is the first player over the last 20 seasons to record consecutive 30-point, 10-assist games.
He also got a win at No. 10 TCU. pic.twitter.com/7Dl6fqz7z2
— ESPN (@espn) December 30, 2017
The Sooners improve to 11-1 overall this season and would likely crack the top 10 of the Associated Poll rankings next week with the win over TCU on the road.
Trae Young is easily the biggest reason why Oklahoma is having success so far this season. Young leads, not only the Big 12, in points (28.7) and assists (10.4) per game but the nation as well. Kay Felder nearly finished the 2015-2016 season as the nation’s leader in both points in assists, but he was playing for a mid-major program (Oakland) unlike Young.
If anyone thought that Young would regress once conference play kicked in, their prediction was easily dashed by the spitfire guard’s explosion in Forth Worth.
Trae Young and the Sooners will face next unranked Oklahoma State on Wednesday before taking on No. 7 West Virginia next Saturday. That game against the Mountaineers and “Press Virginia” would be a great test for Young, as WVU has always been a defensive-minded team under head coach Bob Huggins.
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