One idea for how Kansas could elect to defend Trae Young tonight in Norman

By Matt Tait     Jan 23, 2018

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Oklahoma guard Trae Young, left, stands with head coach Lon Kruger, right, during the second half in an NCAA college basketball game against Arkansas during the Phil Knight Invitational Tournament, in Portland, Ore., Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Troy Wayrynen)

It’s funny, but almost two full years after writing a blog about the Jayhawks’ plans for guarding Buddy Hield on our drive down to Oklahoma, I find myself on the same road, albeit in a different car, writing a blog about the Jayhawks’ plans for guarding a different Oklahoma scorer — freshman Trae Young.

Yep. That’s exactly the one aspect of tonight’s clash between No. 5 Kansas and No. 12 Oklahoma — 6 p.m. on ESPN2 from Norman, Okla. — that most people will tune in to see.

And, at this point, I’m not exactly sure of how it’s going to go. I have my suspicions, of course. And my best bet is that the Jayhawks will approach this one with the idea of letting Young get what he gets and making sure that his teammates don’t beat them.

It might be a solid plan. Heck, it might even work. But it’s not as if they’ll ignore guarding Young altogether. I mean, they still will try to defend Young as best they can in hopes of forcing [the fabulous freshman][1] into one of those rare rough nights.

So because KU still will actually guard Young, let’s take a look at how they might do it.

Naturally, the first assumption is that a good chunk of the task [will fall on senior point guard Devonte’ Graham, who is similar in size to Young and competitive enough][2] to rise to the challenge.

So that’s as good of a place as any to start. But I definitely do not think it ends there. Graham’s going to need help. And if he doesn’t get it, chasing Young around all night has potential to wear him out and have a negative affect on the rest of Graham’s game.

So while it’s easy to see Marcus Garrett, Lagerald Vick and Graham all getting their turns on checking Young, here’s a scenario that would be most intriguing to see.

Not early. Not all the time. But enough to make an impact.

Here’s how the idea looks:

Oklahoma forward Khadeem Lattin inbounds the ball to Young after a KU bucket and the Jayhawks immediately show a little light full-court pressure. The reason for the look is simple — to get the ball out of Young’s hands as he brings it up the floor.

As soon as he dishes it, Garrett slides over to him and has one simple set of instructions — do not let him get the ball back.

Face-guard him, shadow him, bump him, grab him. Whatever needs to be done to keep him from being the guy with the ball in his hands, do it.

Kansas can afford to put this kind of task on Garrett’s shoulders because he already is known as a defensive type of player and the Jayhawks typically do not need nor ask for offense from Garrett. So, yes, he will be expending an awful lot of energy, but it’s not like it will hurt Kansas elsewhere.

Will it work? Not every time. But could it work for 10 or 15 possessions? If Garrett’s up to the challenge, it could. And I can’t see any way that Garrett, a freshman himself, would not be up for the challenge of aggressively guarding the nation’s best scorer well enough to help his team win the game.

Garrett’s length, quickness and grinder mentality — never too high after good moments nor too low after the bad ones — would be the perfect traits to put on Young for half of the game. And there’s no doubt that Young would come out on top his fair share of times in his battles with Garrett. But even if the KU freshman were able to win 7-10 of these types of showdowns, he could be saving KU 10-20 points.

Remember, Young shoots 37 percent of Oklahoma’s shots and that number has ballooned to 41.5 percent during Big 12 play. So it’s not as if his teammates are just standing around ready to be the guys who make things happen. [They’re dependent, at least somewhat, on Young setting them up to make plays.][3] And as talented as he is, Young will not be able to do that if he doesn’t have the ball.

“I think there were some things. So much of it is determined if it’s good or bad defense after the ball leaves their hand and that’s not real. You could play good defense on Trae and they come away with three points. And you could play poor defense and he could miss a shot.”

“Nobody’s shut him down,” KU coach Bill Self said this week. “Nobody’s been totally effective in doing that. They may have made him take more shots, but (with) a lot of them, he misses the same shot that he makes. It’s kind of like us guarding Buddy a few years ago. I thought we did a great job and if we didn’t do a great job he would’ve got 56 instead of 46.”

In talking with the media Monday afternoon, Graham said, somewhat vaguely, that the Jayhawks had a plan for how to defend Young.

Whether it’s what you just read above, some other gimmick or a combination of a few things, it will be interesting to see exactly what it is and how much it is designed to give Graham a break.

Having said that, there’s no doubt that Graham wants his turn and will be ready for it.

“I do think he likes these challenges,” Self said. “But I also know with as much as we’re asking him to do, playing 36 minutes and having to defend the leading scorer in the country and still try to get 20 yourself, that’s tiring. So it’ll be nice if someone else could step up and lighten his load but he does love these opportunities there’s no question.”

[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/keegan-lunch-break/2018/jan/23/trae-young-entertaining-leader-of-the-ba/
[2]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2018/jan/23/tom-keegan-points-not-only-relevant-point-measurin/
[3]: http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/chasen-point/2018/jan/21/why-ku-must-do-more-than-trying-to-limit/

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.