But …

“I’ve been asking about her since I got out here,” Young told the Journal-World on Monday afternoon.

The 6-foot-8 Young knows already that he will need help from Hudy — KU’s assistant athletic director for sport performance — to add muscle to his lanky frame.

Right now, he’s at 190 pounds. He’d like to be at 215 before the season starts.

And simply eating a ton hasn’t worked for him in the past.

“I think it’s more about what types of food I eat, because I have a fast metabolism,” Young said. “I’m never able to keep on that much weight.”

So far, Young hasn’t been able to hang out much with his teammates at KU. He’s enrolled in two summer classes and also helped Monday with a Jeff Boschee Clinic in Phillipsburg.

He’s also still getting accustomed to the Kansas weather.

“It’s nice during the daytime out here, but once the sun goes down, it just starts pouring,” said Young, who also added that Kansas was “kind of humid, but I can get used to it.”

At first, Young’s parents were surprised at his decision to play at KU. That included his mother, Alicia Morales.

“She said, ‘Kansas? Way out there?'” Young said. ” … She only knows a little bit of the West Coast Conference, and that’s about it. Every time she watches me play, she wants to correct something.”

Both of Young’s parents attended all of his games at Loyola Marymount. Young’s former teammates knew immediately where his mother was sitting.

“She just yells at whatever she’s seeing,” Young said with a laugh. “If I don’t grab one rebound, don’t block a shot, don’t dive for the ball, if I stay on the floor too long, she’s just always in my ear.”

“At Loyola, it was during the games. Then, any time since I was seven, we have film on me playing ball, and every time we go back and watch it, she’ll still yell at me.”

While he was at LMU, Young also kept with a tradition: He didn’t cut his hair during the basketball season.

“A lot of kids that I hung out with saw pictures of me in high school with an afro, and they were like, ‘You need to bring that back,'” Young said. “So I did it for them pretty much.”

Young’s bio picture from Loyola Marymount features his hair poofing well above his head.

“I’m not sure if that’s going to keep going,” said Young, who just had his hair cut short last week. “We’ll have to see how Coach feels about that.”

While at Loyola, Young also involved himself with community service as part of a campus organization called “Late Night.”

The forward distributed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and also water to the homeless in the area.

“I like helping out a lot,” Young said, “and just being a part of the student population as well as the basketball (team).”

More about KU visit

On Monday, Young also further clarified how he ended up visiting KU after previously signing a grant-in aid with San Diego State.

“It happened, like, around the end of May,” Young said. “I talked to (KU assistant) coach (Kurtis) Townsend and let him know that I was interested in coming, and then before he went on, he made sure that I talked to coach (Steve) Fisher and (assistant) coach (Brian) Dutcher at San Diego State and made sure they knew that I was planning on taking a visit out here and stuff. And then, I talked to them as well and let them know.

“They weren’t too happy. I don’t know if they really agreed with it, but I just went ahead and came out here.”