URI Seeks to Slow Down Oklahoma Freshman Young in NCAA Tourney Opener

URI Seeks to Slow Down Oklahoma Freshman Young in NCAA Tourney Opener

The University of Rhode Island will face Oklahoma University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday afternoon which means a matchup with freshman superstar Trae Young.

“He really has no weakness in his game. He can score at every level obviously, with amazing range on his perimeter shot. He can pass the ball with either hand at ridiculous angles. He has the ball in his hands, it has to be over 90 percent of the time, you know, 90, maybe even 95 percent,” said URI head coach Dan Hurley during his press conference on Wednesday.

The Rise of Young

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Young emerged as a national sensation after just the fifth game of his college career when he dropped 43 points on Oregon in a 10 point Oklahoma win.

He then went on to put up 26 points and 22 assists against Northwestern State, 39 points against #10 TCU and 29 points against #6 West Virginia.

Shortly after that, he was getting nightly coverage on ESPN and shoutouts on Twitter from the likes of LeBron James and Steph Curry.

“He is a normal kid, went to Norman High School (in Oklahoma) and we were all very aware of him and it was huge for Oklahoma to get him over Kansas and Duke, but no-one saw this coming. I mean, for him to become the national phenomenon that he did, it became a bit difficult for everyone to handle, it became tough for Oklahoma to handle and I think it turned everyone off nationally,” Oklahoma radio play-by-play man Toby Rowland told GoLocalProv.

The Sooners enter the NCAA Tournament having lost eight of their last ten and 11 of their last 14 games, barely squeaking into the tournament.

Young has 24 turnovers in his last five games and 161 turnovers on the season.

"I'm 19 years old. I had to mature a lot more quickly than a lot of 19-year-olds would. It's been a roller coaster year. I wouldn't go back and do anything different. I mean, these are my brothers, and we've had a roller coaster year, like I've said. I mean, we can always get better, and you -- I mean, you can always get better and you learn from your failures, so, that's all I'm doing. I'm just maturing and getting better each and every day," said Young during his press conference on Wednesday. 
On the season, Young is averaging 27 points and eight assists per game. 

Slowing Down Young & Oklahoma 

For URI, they come into he tournament with one of the deepest backcourts in the country.

Expect the Rams to try to contain Young with a mix of Jared Terrell and Jeff Dowtin as well as various defensive looks.

"They have a lot of the good guards on their team. They know how to play, play well with each other, and I feel like in my eyes the guards run the NCAA Tournament. When you have good guard play, those are the teams that usually win, win down the stretch, too. So they got really good guards and we got to be ready to play and match up with them." said Young. 

Hurley added, "It's a heck of a challenge, but they also have some long athletes that play around to him. And when they're right, there may be -- their long athletes are making threes around him when they're right. But it all starts with him."

Other players that will be on URI’s scouting report include freshman forward Brady Manek.

Manek, who stands at 6’9,” averaged 10 points and five rebounds per game for the Sooners this season.

However, he has only reached double-figures in scoring once in his last seven games.

The other guard in the Oklahoma backcourt is another freshman in Christian James.

James averages 12 points per game this season and had reached double-figures in scoring in seven straight games for the Sooners before being held scoreless in Oklahoma’s Big 12 Tournament game against Oklahoma State.

At center, Oklahoma will start junior Jamuni McNeace, who averages six points and five rebounds per game.

“When Oklahoma has been at their best this year they have three or four guys around him that are streaky shooters, Manek is a freshman who was hot early, but he has cooled off over the last month or so," said Rowland. 

URI vs Oklahoma

This will mark the first ever meeting between the Rams and Sooners.

Game time is set for 12:15 p.m. on CBS.