Biggest Surprise
March 15, 2005 11:48 AM | General
March 15, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In a Big East tournament full of pleasant surprises for the West Virginia University basketball program, perhaps the biggest one was put forth by forward Frank Young. The 6-foot-5-inch sophomore got his first career start in the Mountaineers’ biggest game of the year against top-seeded Boston College, and he came up big.
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| Frank Young celebrates West Virginia's 78-72 upset victory over No. 7-rated Boston College last Thursday afternoon.
AP Photo/Julie Jacobson |
Regular forward Tyrone Sally began feeling sick at about 1 o’clock in the morning after the team’s 82-59 first-round win over Providence and by morning time he could barely get out of bed before the team’s noon game against the No. 7-ranked Eagles. Sally didn’t arrive at Madison Square Garden until just before tip off and that was a pretty good tip off to Young that he was going to do a whole lot more than just sit on the bench.
Mountaineer coach John Beilein gave Young the news right before the team went onto the floor for warm-ups. “Frank you’re starting. Tyrone’s too sick to play,” the coach said.
Young’s first thought was to get out on the floor and get stretched out really well. He also sorted through the BC scouting report in his mind, half-glad that he paid close attention the day before.
“There are a lot of details that you need to know,” Young said.
In all honesty things didn’t look very promising for West Virginia at that point. The Mountaineers were trading Sally’s 12 points and five rebounds per game for Young’s 2.4 points and 35.4 percent field goal percentage. The Tallahassee, Fla., native only scored in 10 of the 24 games he played and logged a career-high 16 minutes in a blowout loss to Notre Dame. He was probably going to have to play that many minutes in the first half alone.
“I knew I was going to have to step up,” Young said. “I always have my confidence once I hit my first couple of shots.”
And hit them he did. Young was able to shake off the nerves and the rust to score 13 first-half points to help the Mountaineers to a surprising 22-point halftime. He made back to back threes including one from well past the NBA line just ahead of the halftime buzzer. It was a remarkable effort. So remarkable, in fact, that Young had exceeded his career high in scoring by two points by halftime.
“After the first couple of minutes went by and I hit my first couple of shots all those nerves were gone,” Young said. “It was just a lot of energy going on for us to beat BC.”
Young finished the game with a career-high 14 points and West Virginia upset the Boston College, 78-72. The Mountaineers couldn’t have pulled off such a monumental upset without Young’s fabulous play. Maybe this was finally Frank Young’s breakout performance.
Young has teased us before. Back in December he scored eight points in a blowout loss to New Hampshire. A month later, he reached double figures for the first time in his career with 11 points in 14 minutes of action in a two-point home win against Providence.
But each time it looked like Young had crossed over and was headed for greater things, he would fall back down to earth. After his New Hampshire performance, he followed that up with zero points in two minutes of action against N.C. State.
Young managed five points in a loss at Georgetown after his 11-point outing against Providence and failed to even score in the win at St. John’s.
So when he popped in 14 against BC in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament it was only natural for people to wonder if he was going to transform back into Frank the Tank and put up another goose egg.
But this time things were different. With Sally still feeling woozy, Young got his second consecutive start against No. 19 Villanova in a pressure-packed Big East tournament semifinal on Friday night in primetime. Practically the whole country had its eyes trained on a surging West Virginia basketball team that was the talk of New York City.
West Virginia was playing a hot Villanova team that had beaten the Mountaineers by 38 points the first time they played back in January, and West Virginia was going into this one with an untested sophomore playing a key role in its lineup.
Just as he had done against Boston College, Young got off to a fast start and poured in 10 by halftime to help the Mountaineers to a seven-point lead. Young finished the game with 12 points and he also grabbed four rebounds.
Young’s effort was significant because it was the first time in his career that he had produced back-to-back good games. Instead of going up and down, the bar was now evening out for Young and that type of consistency is what appeals most to coaches.
In the Big East championship game against Syracuse, Young had a solid eight points in 20 minutes of action. Sally came back strong and added 13 off the bench to give the small forward position 21 total points. Obviously Frank Young came out of the Big East tournament a different man.
“This will help me because if I can perform well in Madison Square Garden in the Big East tournament I can perform well anywhere,” Young reasoned. “Getting used to the pressure gives me a lot of confidence and let’s me know that I can play well.”
Sally agrees: “I talked to Frank after the (BC) game and I told him he was doing a good job and to keep it up. I said, ‘You’re playing with a lot of confidence and keep playing your game because you already know you can play like that.’”
With Young’s big boost in confidence the Mountaineers can now easily go nine-deep in the NCAA tournament. His emergence has also now given West Virginia a more solid footing for the future, too.
Keep in mind, the starting lineup that beat both Boston College and Villanova in the Big East tournament returns completely intact for 2006. Young’s outstanding performance in the post-season could be the final ingredient needed to transform West Virginia into an annual NCAA tournament contender.
Since his fabulous effort in the Big East tournament Young’s cell phone won’t stop ringing. “I got a lot of calls from my family and people I hadn’t heard from in a long time. A lot of people said, ‘Yeah Frank I saw you on TV.’ I was real surprised by some of the calls I did get.”
Young admits that some of those calling didn’t even realize he was playing in a big-time basketball program in the Big East Conference. Not only has that changed, but so have West Virginia’s basketball fortunes as well.
