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Player Of The Week: Trae Young, Oklahoma

Oklahoma v West Virginia

MORGANTOWN, WV - JANUARY 06: Trae Young #11 of the Oklahoma Sooners pulls up for three against the West Virginia Mountaineers at the WVU Coliseum on January 6, 2018 in Morgantown, West Virginia. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

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My favorite part about covering college basketball are the stories that come out of nowhere.

Like, for example, a borderline top 20 recruit from Norman, Oklahoma, going to his hometown school, putting up Maravichian numbers and taking a team that second-to-last in the Big 12 a season ago and turning them into a legitimate national title contender and possible conference champ.

Trae Young is what makes college basketball so enjoyable for me.

And I swear to you, I am getting sick of writing about Trae Young.

It’s not because I don’t love the story and it’s not because he’s a bad kid. By all accounts, he seems to be a genuinely good dude. He’s also a hard-worker that is making the absolute most out of his comparatively-limited physical skills.

I just don’t know what else can possibly be said about him that hasn’t already been said, that I haven’t written ten times over.

He’s incredible. He’s putting up numbers that compare favorably to the numbers that Russell Westbrook is currently averaging for that other team in Oklahoma. His counting stats are ridiculous, as are his advanced stats; no one has ever used as many possessions as Young uses, and his efficiency on those possessions would be very good for a player that has the ball in his hands half the time.

This past week, Young went for 27 points, nine assists and four steals in a win over No. 8 Texas Tech and followed that up by tying a career-high with 43 points and setting career-highs with 11 boards and ten threes to go along with seven assists in an overtime win over No. 16 TCU. He shot 44 percent from the floor and 50 percent from three in those two games.

And it’s only January 15th.

So I better get used to this.

THE ALL-‘THEY WERE GOOD, TOO’ TEAM


  • LUKE MAYE, North Carolina: Maye snapped out of a funk in a big way this week, going for 32 points and 18 boards in North Carolina’s home win over Boston Colleege before posting 18 pints and 11 boards to go along with three assists and three steals in a win at Notre Dame.
  • DENG ADEL, Louisville: Adel led the Cardinals to a pair of crucial wins this week, knocking off Florida State in Tallahassee and beating Virginia Tech in the Yum! Center. Adel averaged 21.5 points, 8.5 boards and 4.0 assists in the two wins, including a 27-point, 11-rebound performance against the Hokies.
  • LINDELL WIGGINTON, Iowa State: Wigginton has been one of the best freshman in the country that no one is talking about. This week, he scored 27 points in Allen Fieldhouse in a five-point loss before putting up a career-high 30 as the Cyclones landed their first league win of the season over Baylor.
  • CHANDLER HUTCHISON, Boise State: Hutchison’s phenomenal senior season continued this week as he put 21 points, 10 boards and four assists on Fresno State in a road win before dropping 44 on San Diego State at home. The Broncos look like Nevada’s biggest challenger in the Mountain West race.
  • JUSTIN WRIGHT-FOREMAN, Hofstra: Wright-Foreman is now the nation’s second-leading scorer after the week he had. If we pretend that last Sunday night was actually this week, then Wright-Foreman averaged 31.3 points, 4.3 assists and 3.7 boards in three games. In six league games, he’s averaging 30.5 points and 4.5 assists.