Patric Young’s most impressive play from Saturday night can’t be found in the box score.
After Will Yeguete was fouled during a dunk attempt, the ball clanged off the back iron and careened skyward. Young left his feet as the whistle blew, outstretched his right arm almost a full 90 degrees behind his head, snared the ball and tomahawked it forward, throwing home a monster slam worth precisely zero points.
His reward? A few cheers, a couple lackluster high fives and an opportunity to go back to work.
For fans and the casual observer, that’s all they need to see of Young’s game. He has an NBA body, NBA athleticism and he can illicit more than his fair share of wows, so he’s clearly the man.
Personally, I expect more.
The funny part is, to a much lesser extent, Billy Donovan is looking at it the way the fans are.
“Just his energy level, it shifts our team,” Donovan said. “We’ve got to get him where he’s playing, even if it’s three or four minutes, at an incredible burst of energy because when he does that it totally changes the complexion of our team. And I think that’s what happened when he got in the game (Saturday).”
After opening on the bench due to an ankle injury, Young checked in at the 16:33 mark, with the Gators down 10-4. His first seven possessions were a work of art.
A textbook box out on the defensive end was followed by a seal, post move and basket on his first offensive possession. He forced a turnover by contesting a pass to LSU’s Justin Hamilton. Then he got the ball in the post, gave a couple shoulder fakes and connected on a right-handed hook shot.
Less than a minute later he hit a layup on an assist from Brad Beal. At the other end, he jostled Hamilton out of the lane, forcing him to catch the ball a good five feet from the paint. Trying to make up for lost space, Hamilton traveled, and Young had caused his second turnover.
The game was tied, Florida had the ball, and the Gators never again trailed by more than two.
“But, if you notice,” Donovan said, “there are times where you don’t notice he’s even out there.”
Young checked in with 4:23 remaining in the first half, some time passed, he picked up a foul with 1:28 left and checked out. That’s it.
It was a solid game for Young overall — eight points on 3 of 3 shooting plus seven rebounds and a block in 24 minutes — but it was not without its poor stretches.
With about 16 minutes left in the second half, there was a sequence where he missed a rebound, tapped another out of bounds and then gave up an easy layup when he failed to secure a loose ball.
Whether the ups and downs are due to fatigue, as Donovan suggests, or the lingering tendinitis, or something else entirely, the result has been mostly mediocre play during the course of Young’s career.
For a player with Young’s tools, more should be expected.
He’s pulling in not-quite-7 rebounds per game, and the advanced statistics don’t look great. Both his offensive and defensive rebounding percentages — the percent of available boards he pulls in when he’s on the floor, compiled by kenpom.com — are lower than Will Yeguete’s. Young ranks 222nd nationally offensively and 271st defensively.
His offensive game has improved since last year, and he actually has post moves now. He’s averaging 11 points per contest and is shooting 63.5 percent, all while avoiding the foul bugaboo. He’s been whistled just 3.8 times per 40 minutes this season.
And, naturally, the highlight reel blocks are still there. Twenty-one of them. Not a dominant total, but solid nonetheless.
Add it all up and you’ve got a pretty good big man on paper.
And as he showed with Saturday night’s post-whistle jam, he doesn’t always need to make a huge dent in the box score to affect the game.
But Young is supposed to be better than “pretty good,” and there’s no reason he shouldn’t be producing at an All-America, or at least All-SEC, level.
“When he keeps running on a consistent basis,” Donovan said, “you can’t help but notice him.”
Notice him. You never hear people say that dominant big men, like Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger, get “noticed,” or are important because of their “energy.”
So is that enough from the player some called the best big man Donovan has ever recruited? The next Dwight Howard?
I’m not so sure.
Contact Greg Luca at gluca@alligator.org.
