Kyle Young’s evening on Thursday consisted of a 16-point, six-rebound performance while also defending National Player of the Year frontrunner Luke Garza and holding him to a season-low of 16 points, playing an integral role in securing No. 4 Ohio State’s 89-85 win at Iowa.
The next day, Young didn’t do anything basketball-wise. A day later, he avoided stepping onto a court once more.
Several moments this season, head coach Chris Holtmann has referenced in interviews the fact that the senior forward’s soreness in his legs has caused him to bounce between practicing and sitting out. Late last week, he needed two full days off before getting back out there. It has become a normal part of doing business this season. Young plays, then he needs to rest his legs. Like clockwork.
To make it sound like Holtmann is unfazed when one of his starting forwards can’t practice due to the leg soreness he continues to battle wouldn’t exactly be accurate.
“I think he's a great example. We miss him when he can't practice, honestly,” Holtmann said just before midnight on Monday. “It affects our practice in a lot of ways.”
What is true, however, is the fourth-year Ohio State head coach hasn’t had to stress too much about Young’s availability for games.
Young shows up. He does his job. He plays his butt off. On Monday, that approach led him to record a career-high 18 points and grab four boards in 34 minutes of a 73-65 win at Maryland.
Night in and night out, the Buckeyes can largely predict what type of performance they’ll get from him because he gives it his all between the buzzers every time he takes the court. Yes, he hasn’t practiced on numerous instances and has required some rest on off nights, but he has averaged 25.6 minutes while playing in every single game. He hasn’t sat out any of the 20 games so far this regular season.
“He's a one of a kind, man,” Duane Washington Jr. said. “Kyle Young is the hardest-working dude, hardest-playing player I've ever played with. It's special. It goes unnoticed a lot.”
Holtmann added: “He's a really good player and underrated in a lot of ways, I think.”
Monday night, at least, he didn’t go overlooked. Not by the time the night concluded.
Ohio State lived life behind the 3-point line offensively in the first half, nullifying much of Young’s potential impact near the rim. The team didn’t even score its first point in the paint until the forward converted an and-one through contact with a little more than four minutes remaining in the opening half. That bucket, along with a second around the rim a few minutes later, weren’t enough to make up for what Young that was a lackluster first 20 minutes.
“Early on, I wasn't really playing as tough as I should,” Young said. “On a few finishes, even on the defensive end, I wasn't playing with as much force as I should. So I wanted to switch that up pretty quick and was able to do that.”
Yes. Yes, he was.
Almost immediately, he made his presence known. First, he swatted an Eric Ayala shot a minute and a half after the second half began, and 11 seconds later he drew a foul and knocked down a pair of free throws. A couple minutes later, Young scored again on a layup at the rim off of a find from Washington.
Coming into the day, Washington said, the game plan was centered on one thing: Being the aggressor. Too often in the first half, the Buckeyes were responding to what the Terrapins did. Young’s physicality and activity at the point of attack to begin the second half truly got things rolling in his team’s direction and helped Ohio State pull out to a double-digit lead for the majority of the rest of the game.
“I always tell people if I had to pick one guy to go in a tussle with, I'm picking Kyle Young,” Washington said. “That's the guy I'm bringing with me everywhere I go.”
Young later hit a 3-pointer for the second consecutive game, scored once more on a layup, then cleaned up an offensive rebound by throwing down a two-handed jam that put Ohio State on top, 64-49, with 5:51 remaining.
“He was phenomenal,” Holtmann said. “I thought he led the way.”
Young’s development throughout his four-year career has been similar, in a lot of way, to the growth of this season’s team. He came in with plenty of potential as a top-100 recruit from Massillon Jackson, served as a reserve early on, then began a gradual yet steady progression into the player he has become as a senior.
Young continues to do the stuff that has made him special for years, playing with a ferocity and vigor found in few players while providing energy, rebounding, physicality and points around the rim. As the years have gone by, he has slowly added to his game. He’s ever-improving defensively while undersized in many matchups, has sunk 8-of-21 3-pointers (38.1 percent) this season and made his right-handed hook shot in the paint a weapon defenses have to know about.
“I'm just really happy for him that his game has continued to grow because it really has,” Holtmann said. “He's taken a giant leap. We've talked about E.J. (Liddell) having improved, and he has. He's been tremendous. And Duane and Justin (Ahrens). Kyle Young, throw him in there. His growth has been really, really important for us.”
