Limiting Young, Sooners will be key for WVU on defensive end
How do you effectively defend a player like Trae Young?
Good question.
Even with a defensive mindset, West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins hasn’t seen a player of his caliber with the ball since Jason Kidd was at California.
However, unlike Kidd, Young not only can facilitate the ball to his teammates for shots by dishing out over ten assists per game but is one of the most effective scorers in college basketball as well averaging just under 30 points per contest through the first 13 Oklahoma games.
The veteran head man referred to Young as “probably the best player in the country."
I'm not sure if there is a probably to it.
As a true freshman, Young has yet to score under 15-points in a game this year and dropped 43 against Oregon while he’s accounted for double digit assists eight times including 22 against Northwestern State. A total of 22 assists in one game, tying the NCAA record in that department.
Huggins has encountered players with potential NBA futures before, but Young is unique because of his ability to pass the ball, something of a lost art in today’s game.
“He’s not good, he’s terrific,” Huggins said.
That scoring and passing combination is a difficult one to contain – forget stopping.
So best plan of action?
According to Huggins, it was TCU head coach Jamie Dixon that had the best plan of attack.
“He just said if he gets his average fine but you can’t give him ten assists. You have to cut his assists in half,” Huggins said. “I think there is some merit to that.”
Now a plan and putting it into action are two different things as Young still managed to score 39 points and chip in 14 times in the 90-89 road win over the Horned Frogs. But the blueprint is there.
West Virginia does have an ace in the hole on the defensive end in senior guard Jevon Carter. Named the NABC Defensive Player of the Year a season ago, the expectation is that it will be an old fashioned battle of strengths with Carter being locked onto the freshman.
But the reality will be different. While Carter will surely draw the assignment of Young, there is no question that he will receive from help as well as others getting the task of defending him.
“Obviously he needs help. That’s a given with everybody. You know when he is right he’s very valuable to us at both ends and you don’t want to wear him out to the point at the end of the game he can’t make plays,” Huggins said. “He’s not going to be the only one guarding him.”
Carter injured his right wrist against Oklahoma State and has shot 3-17 from the floor in wins over the Cowboys and Kansas State on the road but Huggins simply said he was “fine.”
The typically level-headed Carter treated this matchup as such as well, simply saying he will take his assignments and attempt to play as well as he can. He did acknowledge that Young can score in a variety of ways and the goal will be to try to take things away to make it difficult.
Still, even Carter admitted that Young was different.
“He has a lot to his game. You can tell he’s very skilled, he’s smart … he’s different,” he said. “…A lot of their stuff runs through him and he makes them go.”
The good news for West Virginia is that their defensive style is different as well and not many, if any, teams play the same press style for the duration of the game as well as making teams earn it in the half court.
But it’s not just Young – his supporting cast is a big reason why this Sooners team is perched inside the top ten with players that can make plays around him and hit shots.
“The bottom line is make shots,” Huggins said.
And if West Virginia wants to stretch its win streak to 14 games, preventing that at a high rate is the key.
