James Young (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky went from one of the nation’s most disappointing teams in the 2013-14 season to almost winning a national championship thanks to a brilliant postseason run.
Kentucky had the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class stacked with McDonald’s All-Americans but after a 7-1 start had losses to Baylor, North Carolina, Arkansas, LSU, Florida, Arkansas again, South Carolin and Florida again to finish 12-6 in SEC play and 22-9 overall going into postseason play.
Guard James Young was one of the five-star players who was part of the amazing NCAA Tournament run for No. 8 seed UK after the Cats lost to Florida 61-60 in the SEC Tournament final. The Cats beat Kansas State, No. 2 Wichita State, No. 5 Louisville, No. 7 Michigan and No. 12 Wisconsin before falling 60-54 to UConn in the national title game.
Aaron Harrison hit memorable game-winning shots against Louisville, Michigan and Wisconsin but it was Young who hit the late 3-pointer to help knock off unbeaten Wichita State.
“We had an up-and-down season with like nine (McDonald’s) All-Americans, everybody wanted us to win every game,” Young, who had 20 points and seven rebounds in the national title game, said. “We were young and had to mature through the season.
“The older guys started helping the younger guys and we finally started clicking. The season was crazy, and we surprised a lot of people. That was the best part of that season, we surprised a lot of people.”
Young is back in Lexington to play with La Familia, UK’s alumni team, in The Basketball Tournament (TBT) that starts in Rupp Arena Friday.
“We finally made it to the (NCAA) championship as I thought we should and came up a little short but it was great memories. Always gonna be great memories,” he said. “I think we had a historic run. It was a lot of good moments for everybody. Everybody was a star. We all ate together and it was a great run.”
Young made 82 3-pointers during the season. He had 17 points in the Final Four win over Wisconsin. He put in 13 points against both Michigan and Wichita State in the NCAA Tournament. He averaged 14.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 32.4 minutes per game.
Young, 29, opted to leave UK after one season and was the 17th overall pick in the NBA Draft by Boston. He played in 108 NBA games with Boston and Philadelphia in four seasons and averaged 2.3 points and 1.0 rebounds per game. Since then he has played overseas in Israel, Greece and Italy. He just finished a season playing for Varese of the Lega Basket Serie A in Italy and is waiting to see what the future holds.
Helping La Familia win the $1 million purse for winning this tournament would be a nice feat but he’s enjoying being back in Lexington.
“Everybody’s just happy to be here. Great energy. That’s what you want to see from people coming in. I think we’re all on the same page and just want to have fun,” Young said. “It’s just a blast for everybody just to be back in Lexington.”
He said he remembers “all the good times” being part of such a close team.
“We always did everything together on the court and off the court. I’m glad to see most of the guys back here and just have fun. But that season, it was a crazy season.”
One Response
James Young had some nasty dunks. He could also hit the 3. Out of all the one and dones that came and went year after year, I thought for sure he was going to be a NBA All Star or headliner, but everything happens for a reason. I would love to play in Europe and overseas to get to see the world. You get to go places you’ve never been and will probably never see again. In fact I would prefer to play overseas. They still play real basketball. The NBA is boring for me to watch. That’s why some people don’t like when the players leave because they will never see them play again. It’s great for the kid who’s leaving and I understand but you have to be understanding of both sides of the spectrum