When it was announced on Monday that Joseph Young had earned the votes of the majority of the Pac-12 coaches and had been named the conference’s Player of the Year, the news was met with surprise around much of the conference. In Salt Lake City and Tucson, it was met with derision. Despite leading the conference in scoring, carrying his inexperienced Oregon club to a surprising second place conference finish, and revising his game to further the goals of the team, Utah and Arizona fans thought that their senior guards – namely, Delon Wright and T.J. McConnell – had stronger claims on that title. They viewed the conference tournament this weekend in Las Vegas as an opportunity to make such statements.
Young made his own statement to the assembled crowd at the MGM Grand Arena on Thursday, scoring 20 of his game-high 30 points in the second half as his Ducks soared past Colorado. Last night, he took that statement nationwide, drilling a 30-foot three-point game-winner as time expired to send the Ducks to the championship game against Arizona. It’s the kind of play that will be shown time and again in future years in Pac-12 Tournament clips, and it is the kind of play that will re-introduce Young to the casual college basketball fans. I’ve already seen it four times on ESPN in the 20 minutes since I’ve gotten back to my hotel room.
The fact that the shot came against Wright’s Utes — especially after Young lost all-defensive team member Wright going around a screen – has to feel especially nice following the uproar among fans of his selection. If Young cares to further justify his Pac-12 Player of the Year award, he’ll have another chance tonight against the Wildcats’ candidate, McConnell. Arizona fans came to Las Vegas with a chip on their collective shoulders this week following all-conference snubs in all of the major awards (POY, COY, DPOY). They’ll have their chance to avenge all of that presumed oversight and capture their first Pac-12/Pac-10 title since 2002 this evening.
For The Ducks To Have A Chance Against Arizona, They’ll Need Another Big Game Out Of Young (Scott Olmos, USA Today)
As for Young, he’ll have his work cut out for him. The last two times the Ducks and Wildcats met, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson hounded the senior all over the floor, holding him to just 12 points in each outing. In the first, Young still hunted for his shot and wound up 4-of-15 from the field in an 18-point loss. In the second matchup, Young served mainly as a decoy as Jefferson consistently denied him the ball. He wound up with only nine field goal attempts on the night (his lowest on the year) and was never a factor in the 34-point loss at McKale. The Ducks claim that they’re a better team now and they have won 11 of their 12 games since that disastrous night, but if Oregon is to have any chance to spring the upset on Saturday night, they’ll need their resilient Player of the Year to make one more big statement.