Young's Progress Evident in Dominant Performance
Thursday, December 8, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – His teammates had already left the floor. Gators sophomore center Patric Young stayed behind to do a quick postgame radio interview on the court, something he has rarely – if ever – done during his 45-game UF career.
Of course, Young had never had a performance in his first 44 games like the one he carved out in Wednesday night's 78-72 overtime win against Arizona.
Young scored a career-high 25 points – taking more shots (15) and making more shots (12) than any game in his young career – and grabbed 10 rebounds. Young also added two assists, two blocks and a steal in 38 minutes.
Once the interview was over, Young raced toward the locker room to join his teammates, high-fiving fans as he pumped his fists repeatedly in the air.
He still had plenty of energy after providing the Gators with a much-needed offensive boost with starting guards Erving Walker (3-for-16) and Kenny Boynton (2-for-11) combining to shoot 18.5 percent from the floor.
His breakout offensive game wasn't lost on Young when he greeted a pack of reporters after the game waiting to talk to him.
“I doubled my career-high actually,'' quipped Young, who wasn't far off the mark. Prior to Wednesday, Young's career high was 14 points, both times coming this season – Nov. 15 at Ohio State and Nov. 25 at home against Jacksonville.
If it had been up to Florida coach Billy Donovan, Young would have perhaps tripled his previous career-best scoring game.
“This was a game where Patric Young should have taken 40 shots,'' Donovan said. “We should have just played out of Patric Young the whole entire night. He had 25 points; he should have had 45 points. We should have gotten the ball to him much, much more than we did.''
Donovan wasn't placing any blame for that on Young, instead pointing out that Walker and Boynton could have looked inside more as 22 of those 27 shots they fired up clanked off the rim.
That's something you can bet Donovan will talk about more to his team in the coming days, but on Wednesday night, it was more about what Young did than what Walker and Boynton didn't do.
He made several big plays down the stretch, including grabbing an offensive rebound off Walker's missed three-pointer and dropping it in the basket for a 64-63 Gators lead with 14 seconds remaining in regulation.
“I was just really happy the ball came to me at that point in time,'' Young said. “I was going to go up and dunk it, but I just wanted to go finish the play so I laid it in.''
Young made another key play in overtime when he got the ball inside and as Arizona's Solomon Hill and Kevin Parrom collapsed on him, Young dropped a pass off to Will Yeguete who scored to put the Gators up 71-67 with three minutes left in overtime.
Young's energy on the boards and on defense is something that is always there. His offense is starting to show up more and more after he averaged less than four points a game as a freshman.
He had waited on an offensive game like Wednesday's.
“My whole tenure being here, I haven't really done too much offensively in the post to make teams really come in and just try to keep me out of my game,'' Young said. “Tonight I established that and I'm really thankful that my teammates were able to find me.''
Not enough for Donovan's liking, but enough for Young to show off his improved offensive tools.
Walker was impressed that Young is to the point where he can carry the Gators offensively when needed.
“Pat played great inside,'' Walker said. “[I was most impressed with] his calmness and patience while he is in the lane, making those tough shots. They were defending him one on one, and he took his time and made good strong moves.''
As assistant John Pelphrey said, “The one shining star we had tonight was Patric.''
His turn in the spotlight didn't happen overnight. Young has worked tirelessly to improve his offensive game since he arrived at UF. Over the summer he played on the Team USA U19 squad that traveled to Europe and continued to improve there.
Once he returned home to the States, Young said he took a few days off, but soon it was back into the gym to train and work on expanding his moves around the basket.
Donovan liked the way Young positioned himself on the blocks Wednesday so that when he took entry passes, he was in good position to score with easy shots.
Afterward, Donovan told the Gators that allowing Young to get the ball on the lower blocks and to shoot – he has missed a lot of inside shots this season by rushing – is something opposing teams will likely take off their scouting reports after watching him score 25 against a good Arizona team.
“He should have had 35 to 40 points in the game. He really should have,'' Donovan said.
The 25 were enough in the end.
“They just played me one on one and I was just lucky my teammates were able to find me and get me the ball and I was able to finish a lot of shots,'' Young said.
