Oklahoma basketball: Trae Young’s bad shot selection costs Sooners against WVU
The battle of the night was Trae Young versus West Virginia. The star freshman struggled all night when it came to making shots.
The opening eight minutes for Trae Young was rough, as he and Oklahoma had to get used to “Press Virginia” in the beginning of the game. In the first couple of possessions, Young wasn’t even able to touch the ball, as West Virginia point guard Jevon Carter hounded him the entire way up the court.
When he was able to get the ball, one of two things happened; he either drove the ball into no man’s land in the paint or he took three-pointers that were off balanced. Before he took a seat on the bench for a couple of minutes, he shot 2/7 from the field (1/5 from deep) for five points and a couple of giveaways.
What makes the Mountaineers so difficult to deal with on defense is that there’s always a guy right by you no matter what, so drives down the lane tend to not go so well. But you can definitely tell that the freshman was forcing it in the first half.
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It started to affect him on the defensive end, with Carter nailing a baseline jumper, before getting fouled by Young on a three-point attempt, making all three free throws. The senior guard for WVU went on a personal 9-0 run to get his team a sizable lead.
The Mountaineers were able to go into halftime with a 44-36 lead, with Carter leading all scorers with 14 points, six rebounds, and six assists. Young had more turnovers (4) than made field goals (3) in the first 20 minutes, and the unbelievable shots that he’s been making before weren’t going in.
In the second half, Young used his defense to get him going offensively, getting a pair of steals for some easy layups to cut into the league. It worked, as a deep three by him gave the Sooners their first lead in a while, with 14:00 minutes to go. He got an even bigger boost later, with Carter picking up his fourth foul, making him go to the bench.
The responsibility to guard Young fell on Daxter Miles Jr., but he needed to be careful as well since he had three fouls himself. The shooting stroke for Young still wasn’t coming, but he made his living at the free throw line in the second half.
In the last eight or so minutes of the game, the biggest problem for Young wasn’t the Mountaineer defenders, but rather the constant blowing of the whistles by the officials, which completely stopped the flow of the game. The Sooners like to push the pace and allow Young to improvise on the fast break, but between the stoppages and West Virginia making their shots, the comeback effort was falling short.
The game was sealed with a minute left when Young lost the ball going up for a lay-in, which allowed Carter to toss a full-court pass to Miles for the dunk and the ten point lead. There was nothing Lon Kruger and the Sooners could do after that point, and West Virginia finished the game off with the 89-76 win.
Young may have scored 29 points, but it was done on an inefficient 8/22 shooting (3/12 from deep). He had half of his season average in assist with five and committed a season-high eight turnovers.
Carter finished with 17 points, seven rebounds, and 10 assists, while constantly harassing Young. Sagaba Konate had a big night as well, with 16 points and 13 rebounds.
The biggest takeaway when it comes to Young is that while he’s capable to making difficult shots, always taking them instead of moving the ball around is a bad way to initiate an offense, especially against a team as physical as the Mountaineers.
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Regardless of what happened in this game, both teams have placed themselves at the upper-half of this loaded Big 12 conference. For Oklahoma, 12-2 (2-1) the team will be back in Norman to take on another likely top 10 team in Texas Tech. West Virginia 14-1 (3-0) will remain home, facing a Baylor program coming off a win against Texas. Young may have gotten his point total, but Bob Huggins and company will be sending him home in a loss.