Jayhawks to face explosive Trae Young, Sooners on Tuesday night in Norman

Bill Self says he knew Oklahoma freshman sensation Trae Young would be an outstanding college basketball player. That’s why Self, Kansas’ 15th-year men’s basketball coach, and his assistants extensively recruited Young since his sophomore season at Norman North High School.

If Self’s being perfectly honest, however …

“I’d be lying if I thought he would average 30 as a freshman,” he said Monday in previewing Tuesday’s KU-Oklahoma contest, set for a 6 p.m. tip at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman. It’ll be shown live on ESPN.

“I did think he was a guy who could get 20. I really did feel that way,” Self added of Young, a McDonald’s All-American.

The 6-foot-2 Young, the son of former Texas Tech standout Rayford Young, has emerged as one of the leading candidates for college basketball player of the year after putting up a nation’s best 30.5 points a game through 18 games for the No. 12-ranked Sooners (14-4, 4-3 Big 12). Young also leads the country in assists at 9.7 per contest.

“I always thought he was a point guard,” said Self, whose Jayhawks (16-3, 6-1) take a No. 5 national ranking into Tuesday’s game. “There’s no hesitation in me saying that. Even though he could get his own numbers, I always thought he was an unbelievable facilitator and certainly had great vision. We knew wherever he went — and obviously he picked the right place — wherever he went, he would be a standout performer.”

Young — he’s scored in double figures in all 18 games with a career-high of 48 points in the last game, Saturday’s overtime loss at Oklahoma State — chose the Sooners over KU, Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Texas Tech and Washington.

In reality, it was a KU-OU battle.

“I mean that was probably my toughest phone call I had to make to any coach for sure,” Young told The Star in an interview at Big 12 media day in October at the Sprint Center. “Just because me and Coach Self … he recruited me so long, from my sophomore year. We had such a great relationship. It was tough.”

Because of the fact Young nearly picked KU, he’s especially fired up about playing at least two games against the Jayhawks in what figures to be a one-and-done college season.

“I can’t wait to play everybody,” Young said at media day, “but I mean, Kansas … they ran through the Big 12 what, 13 years now? It’s been 13 (straight conference titles which ties KU with UCLA for most consecutive league crowns). This is the year they can break the record, so what a feeling it’d be like to, I mean, break that streak.

“We’ve got a long way to go to have an opportunity to do that, but I mean that’s one of my steps, to win the Big 12. To win the Big 12 you’ve got to go through Lawrence. That’s one of my goals.”

The Sooners are tied for third in the league with Texas Tech and Kansas State, two games behind KU. The Jayhawks lead 5-2 West Virginia by one game.

For KU to try to separate another game from OU, the Jayhawks of course must find a way to contain the explosive Young.

Easier said than done.

“I think the system he is in is perfect for how he plays, the freedom that Coach (Lon Kruger) gives him, him playing off it, being aggressive and trying to make plays,” said KU senior guard Devonté Graham, who is second in the league in scoring at 18.1 points per game.

“It’s going to be hard to guard him, to try to contain him. We’ve got to try our best to keep him from being in that attack mode 24/7.”

Self did not say Monday if Graham would be assigned to Young defensively the whole game.

“I do think he loves challenges no question,” Self said of Graham. “I also know with as much as we are asking him to do, playing 36 minutes and having to defend the leading scorer in the country and everything else, that’s tiring. And still try to get 20 yourself. It’d be nice if somebody else would step up and certainly relieve some of that load, but he does love these opportunities no question.”

Self was asked what’s toughest about trying to defend Young.

“I don’t know you could put it in that simple terms,” Self said. “He is unbelievable with the ball, great acceleration. He has unbelievable vision. You could take away his shot and they still can come away with two or three points very easily. That’s happened so many times. He’s as good as we’ve had to defend because of the focus he has with that team.

“He’s part of just about everything that transpires with them on the offensive end. The challenge is how do you guard everybody else (including Christian James and Brady Manek at 11.9 and 11.1 points per game)? They can all make shots. They can all score. Still yet how do you not let him get huge numbers?”

More on Preston case

Self on Monday was asked in a media teleconference if KU told the NCAA who paid for the car Billy Preston had been driving this school year. KU has said it has been looking into the financial picture surrounding the car. Preston, a freshman who did not play in a regular-season game as KU and the NCAA looked into the matter, on Saturday announced plans to leave school and play pro ball in Bosnia.

“I’m not going to go into details on that stuff,” Self said. “Plus that would be something for our school attorneys to talk about instead of our compliance office. I think we’ve talked about that situation quite a bit. We were upfront with the situation. Of course you had to be upfront because if a player is not playing, he’s obviously not playing for a reason. It was obvious what the reason was. I don’t have any more to say about that situation at all.”

Self said he felt no KU boosters were involved in payment for the car. “Yes you are correct to say that, yes,” he said when asked if he felt no boosters were involved on KU’s part.

This story was originally published January 22, 2018 at 2:55 PM with the headline "Jayhawks to face explosive Trae Young, Sooners on Tuesday night in Norman."