Trae Young's meteoric rise to the top of the college basketball world continued on an upward trajectory Friday.
Just three days after tying the NCAA record for most assists in a game with 22, the freshman Young scored 31 points and dished out 12 dimes to lead Oklahoma to a decisive 104-78 win over Northwestern in Norman. The game was all but over by half thanks to Young's 25-point, 10-assist opening frame that fueled OU to 68 first-half points and a 30-point lead going into the break.
Young was phenomenally efficient handling the ball and shooting from beyond the arc, hitting eight of his 13 3-point attempts and balancing his 12 assists with four turnovers in 27 minutes of action. And although his comparisons to Stephen Curry have felt hyperbolic in the past, the juxtaposition felt apt against the Wildcats as he flashed range eerily similar to that of the All-Star Warriors guard.
Trae Young from Rudy's. He has 12 points in the first 6:25 of the game. #Sooners pic.twitter.com/iZaSwwvzp4
— OUHoops (@ouhoops) December 23, 2017
Young was stellar from long range but he wasn't the only Sooners player hitting from distance; Oklahoma hit 17 of its 28 3-point attempts to bury the visiting Wildcats, including a methodical 19-point outing from Christian James, who hit five of his six attempts.
Via ESPN Stats, Young is the first player since Chris Thomas in 2001-2002 in the last 20 seasons to have a pair of 30-point, 10-assist games in the same season -- and Young is only 11 games into his freshman season. Taking his monstrous night into account, he continues to lead the NCAA in points and assists, which as my colleague Reid Forgrave noted this week, has never happened in college basketball.
It's fair to say it's Trae Young's world and we're all just living in it.
