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Kyle Young Appreciation Post

+33 HS
ANOTHERMICHIGANLOSS's picture
February 19, 2021 at 8:38am
34 Comments

I would like to think that the OSU athletes and coaches would never approach a website to see what fans think of them, but if they do I would like to give a huge thank you to a kid that has maybe taken a backseat throughout his OSU career to some other names on the team.  

We all know the journey, Kyle essentially committing to Coach Holtmann rather than a school, and coming with him to Columbus.  I remember discussions at the time (keep in mind that people were still screaming for Archie Miller at this point) seemed to key on, so we didn't get our coach, and now he is bringing some kid along with him.  That kid was Kyle Young.

I have been outright amazed at this kids motor for four years now.  Things going well for him in a game?  He keeps pressing.  Things going poorly for him?  He presses harder.  There is no stop in him, injury be damned.  

Now for the actual reason of this post.  I saw a sequence on the defensive side of the floor last night where Young had to switch about 4 or 5 times.  He was on a big man, then flipped to a guard.  While this happens regularly in college basketball, the execution (big vs small, small vs big) can end poorly.  It often does, it's easy to exploit if you have a heady guy with the ball.  Young denied entry into the post, then the guard he switched on tried to weave his way out to the 3 point line, Young beat him to the spot and denied the pass and the ball had to be kicked to the other side of the court.

You don't see this, call me old school, I absolutely love watching guys work their ass off on defense in the game of basketball.  It doesn't show up on stat sheets.  It doesn't show up on ESPN.  Hell it really didn't even show up here on Eleven Warriors.  But it's showing up in the 9 out of 10 or 10 out of 11 that they have just won.  His work ethic bleeds into the rest of the team.  

All of this to say thank you, Kyle.  You are one of my favorite OSU basketball players to watch in the past 20 years.  People may never remember your name in the record books, but when I look back on the nucleus of the beginning of the Holtmann era, your name is the only answer.

This is a forum post from a site member. It does not represent the views of Eleven Warriors unless otherwise noted.

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