Young, Sooners try to shake off rough stretch against Kansas
NORMAN — Not long after Kansas closed-out-a-10-point home win vs. Oklahoma last Feb. 27, Trae Young took to Twitter.
“Way to fight bros,” Young, then a senior at Norman North, tweeted. “Can’t express how fired up I am. Help is coming.”
That help, of course, has been in the form of Young.
But while Young has electrified not only Oklahoma basketball but college basketball as a whole — leading the country in both scoring and assists — entering Tuesday’s meeting with No. 5-ranked Kansas at Lloyd Noble Center (6 p.m., ESPN), Young and the Sooners need a bit of a lift.
For the first time this season, the Sooners have struggled over a stretch, dropping two consecutive games on the road and dropping eight spots to No. 12.
In 2015, Young was in the stands for Buddy Hield’s tip-in at the buzzer that gave the Sooners a 75-73 win over Kansas.
Young said that’s the rowdiest crowd he’d ever experienced at Lloyd Noble Center.
He hopes Tuesday night’s atmosphere can match that one.
The game is a sellout and has been since December.
“I want people to get here early,” Young said. “I want them to have fun tomorrow. I want it to be rowdy. I want it to be an environment that people will talk about after the game. I want it to be fun for everybody, not just me as a player. I want them to enjoy it as well.”
Of course, a fast start on the court could fire up the crowd in a big way.
The Sooners made a habit of fast starts through many of their first 16 games but have struggled early in games recently, falling behind by 19 less than 10 minutes in Saturday’s game at Oklahoma State and by 14 just more than eight minutes into their game at Kansas State.
“We’ve got to come out with some energy and we’ve got to come out with some passion,” junior guard Christian James said. “We have to play hard on defense and get stops and then let’s run. I feel like that’s our biggest thing — we have to get stops. I feel like once we get stops and run, we’ll be fine.”
The defensive end has been an issue during this recent slump, and the Jayhawks present a unique look to a defense with their fourguard lineup that relies heavily on the 3-pointer.
Kansas is the top 3-point shooting team in the Big 12 and also leads the Big 12 in percentage of points scored from the 3-pointer at 37.9.
What they don’t figure to do, though, is slow down the pace the way Kansas State and Oklahoma State have the past two games.
“It’s going to be a very up-and-down, (fast-) paced game,” Young said. “I think that’s going to be a good thing for us.”
On the offensive end, James said, the Sooners have to get the ball moving around the perimeter better with screens, freeing Young up a bit and creating isolation looks for him.
“If we put Trae off the ball and get a couple isos on the wings, I feel like that’ll open the game up for us more and let us create,” James said. “Let the wings create a little bit more and help Trae score.”