As Trae Young continues to struggle the Oklahoma Sooners continue to stumble to the wrong side of the bubble, while the NCAA tournament rapidly approaches.
To understand what’s gone wrong it’s necessary to look at Young’s stat. During this tough stretch of basketball, the talented freshman has been struggling heavily after a phenomenal start.
Young is still averaging 28 points and nine assists per game, which lead the nation in both categories and reflect the good season he’s had as a whole, however, those numbers don’t reflect his latest struggles.
For that it would be necessary to look at the numbers he’s posted in his last 13 games, a span in which the Sooners have garnered a 3-10 record and Young has shot just 39.4 percent from the floor and 31.8 percent from three-point territory.
That’s puzzling if you consider that during his first 16 games, a span in which the Sooners went 14-2, Young shot 48.5 percent from the floor and 40.7 percent from beyond the arc. That was a stretch when Young’s game electrified the country and had people comparing him to Steph Curry. A time that now seems far more distant than it really is.
During the month of February Young has shot 36.4 percent from the floor and 25 percent from three-point range. Those numbers are the lowest of his four-month-old college career.
By comparison, in November those numbers were staggering at 49 and 41.8 percent respectively. They fell slightly to 46.2 and 40.9 in December and continued falling through January where he averaged 42.6 and 40.4 percent before his dismal February crash.
Last night, during the blowout road loss to Baylor (87-64) he shot 35 percent from the floor and just 18 percent from three-point land.
Although he had 18 points and five assists he was a dismal 7-for-20 from the floor and 2-for-11 from beyond the three-point line. Furthermore, he turned the ball over eight times, the highest amount since the 12 he had at Kansas State on January 16 during another blowout loss (87-69).
During the last 13 games, the turnovers have been a constant as he’s averaging 6.1 per game, in contrast to the 4.8 he had during the first 16.
But the numbers that best exemplify that Oklahoma goes as Young goes are his points per game. In the Sooners’ 17 wins Young averages 30.7 points per games while in the 12 losses he’s just averaging 24.1 points per game.
As if that wasn’t bad enough his rebound and assists have also tumbled during Oklahoma’s rough 13-game stretch.
During the first 16 games, Young averaged 4.3 rebounds per game and 10 assists per game. That fell to 3.4 and 7.7 respectively during the last 13 games.
In other words, as Trae Young goes, so does Oklahoma. If Young fails to break out of his slump once and for all and the Sooners lose at home in their final game to Iowa they will continue to slide down the bracket and could be left out of the NCAA tournament by the selection committee.
