Because Kentucky is in the SEC and Oklahoma’s in the Big 12, the two schools won’t meet this season — unless they square off in the NCAA Tournament.
The way Sooners freshman Trae Young is playing, John Calipari hopes that doesn’t happen.
“I’m happy for Trae,” Calipari told reporters Tuesday. “I hope we don’t ever have to play him. He’s a great kid from a great family. [Our approach at Kentucky is] I undersell, overdeliver.”
Young famously chose his home-state school, Oklahoma, over Kentucky and others, and now he’s the favorite for the Wooden and Naismith Awards. He leads the nation in scoring at 29.6 points per game and assists at 10.7.
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On Monday, for the fifth time in eight weeks, Young was named the Big 12 Player of the Week. Young’s five Player of the Week honors are the second-most in Big 12 history, behind only Blake Griffin (also of Oklahoma) with six honors in 2008-09.
“I knew how good he was, but I didn’t even realize he was this good,” Calipari said. “The biggest thing in this, and it’s a great lesson. Lon Kruger — whom I have unbelievable respect for — said we’re going to play through you. It’s all going through you. You’re going to shoot when you want. And he did not lie. He did not lie. What he told that kid — it’s kind of like Bobby Cremins, who used to recruit at Georgia Tech. He would tell a kid what he was going to do, and then he did it.
“My [pitch] was, you’re not going to be the only guy, you’re going to have to share the ball. Hopefully if he had come here, I would have realized early, this kid needs a little more room than some other guys that I have. Hopefully I would have realized that. But I knew he was good, which is why we recruited him so long, but I didn’t realize he’d be able to do what he’s doing, which is basically 80 percent of their baskets, 70 percent of their baskets, he either scores or assists. That’s a ridiculous number. And he’s got teammates that are letting him play and it’s helping them and they’re winning. And he’s got a coach, who, again, one of the best in our business, said here, this is what we’re going to do, and he went out and did it.”
Speaking recently on The 4 Quarters Podcast, Kruger admitted surprise to what the freshman is doing.
“No one could anticipate statistically that types of numbers,” Kruger said. “He’s been remarkable in every ball game. I knew he was very skilled, I knew he could really shot the ball, I knew he had great court vision. But to anticipate those numbers, I don’t think anyone saw that coming.”
Young is currently projected as the No. 17 pick in the NBA Draft per ESPN.com, and has even impressed Russell Westbrook, the reigning NBA MVP.
“People have taken notice nationwide for sure,” Kruger said. “In just 10 short games, he’s gone from not really being projected in a lot of those type [draft] situations to being highly projected.
“And deservedly so, he’s been so consistent. In 10 games, he’s not even had an average game. He’s been above average.”
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