Trae Young still deserves to be college basketball’s player of the year

No one really saw Trae Young coming. Not like this, at least.

Yes, Young was a McDonald’s All-American out of high school. When he committed to hometown Oklahoma over a host of bluebloods, it was celebrated as the Sooners’ biggest recruiting win in a decade. Trae Young was supposed to be good. He was not supposed to be a one man army and statistical supernova that hijacked the college basketball newscycle and got the NBA’s biggest stars buzzing about him. He wasn’t even supposed to be a one-and-done.

Because Young received so much attention so quickly, there was always going to be a backlash if his play dipped. When it happened, the reaction was swift. Oklahoma ended the regular season losing eight of 10 games to move from the top-10 of the polls to the bubble. Instead of talking about Young’s amazing shooting displays and historic stat lines, the bigger talking point became his turnover rate and declining efficiency.

Young was brilliant for the first half of the season. For the second half, he was merely very good. But when viewing this college season in full, Young still deserves to be national player of the year. This is why:

The general public typically doesn’t get into college basketball until the Super Bowl is over. Young had a way of changing that by doing his best Stephen Curry impression for the first 16 games of the season.

Even if you barely followed college hoops, you still saw highlights of Trae Young doing stuff like this every time you turned on the TV:

Young’s unbelievable numbers and even more incredible highlights were the reason he gained so much attention so quickly. The overwhelming amount of attention was the reason some college basketball fans were quick to turn against him when things went South.

All the while, Trae Young just kept doing his thing, putting up huge numbers even if Oklahoma never had enough surrounding talent to support their top-10 ranking.

Let’s call this the Russell Westbrook exception. Westbrook won MVP over James Harden last year in part because he dominated so much of the mind space and media coverage throughout the season. When you average a triple-double, you earn it. When you lead the country in points and assists per game, you earn it. There’s no doubt Young falls under the same category.

It has become trendy to write that Trae Young should not be player of the year. Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo! picked Devonte’ Graham. Andy Katz and Rob Dauster of NBC Sports picked Jalen Brunson.

Those are good choices. The only problem is it feels more like a vote against Young than an honor another player has taken away from him.

No. 1 Virginia doesn’t have a true standout player, so a vote for Brunson feels like a vote for the best player on the best team. Brunson is phenomenal, there’s no doubt, but his season has lacked the defining performances or moments that make a candidacy. Graham was unreal down the stretch for Kansas, but never did it feel like he was the best player in college basketball.

For all of the backlash against Young, he’s still the statistical choice for player of the year according to KenPom.

My No. 2 choice would be Arizona’s Deandre Ayton. You can understand why there is approximately a zero percent chance the NCAA will be giving him any sort of award this season.

Oklahoma shot up as high as No. 4 in the polls this year at its peak. If anything, that’s just another testament to Young’s greatness.

Oklahoma went 11-20 last season. No one had them as a top-25 team. This roster just doesn’t have the type of blue chip talent it requires to be a legitimate national contender. Just look at the recruiting profiles of Young’s supporting cast:

Trae Young took some bad shots this season because no one else can Oklahoma could create their own look. At best, Young had some decent catch-and-shoot guys around him and rim-running center in Lattin. But only Young was able to break down an opposing defense and consistently create offense for the Sooners in the toughest conference in America.

Trae Young did not have a perfect season, but he still put together an aesthetically captivating and statistically unparalleled campaign. No one in college basketball had a better individual season. And that is why he’s college basketball’s player of the year.