11/23/2020 basketball Edit

Year No. 2 with Rutgers on tap for G Jacob Young

Chris Nalwasky • TheKnightReport

Beat Writer

Jacob Young was playing a mile a minute. He tried to do too much.

Then the switch flipped.

After he struggled to start his Rutgers men’s basketball career after transferring from Texas, Young came on and found his role as an instant spark off the bench with his ability to not only to score, but to defend tightly as well.

In 2019-20, Young averaged 8,5 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game with 31 steals. In conference games, he upped his scoring average to 9.1 points per game with 23 steals.

This year, he appears to have taken another step forward and an all-around guard.

“Really just playing on the ball as far as being more of like a facilitator than trying to go score every time or attack every time,” Young said on where he’s improved. “I'm looking for my teammates more and being even more of a presence this year on defense being that that lead guy and just coming with that intensity.”

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Teammate Ron Harper. Jr. has seen Young improve on the court and mentioned there’s no stopping him when he’s fully engaged.

“Jacob did a tremendous job this summer working on his game and improving in every little bits and pieces he could,” the junior said. “He came back, not a different player but like a much better version of himself. JY has the ability to get off like that every practice and when he just puts his mind to it and he wants it, he can do it.”

For the first time since 1978-79, Rutgers is ranked in the Preseason AP Top 25 Poll at No. 24. The hype is there though Young appears to not be focused on that.

“Being No. 24 was interesting. It was fun finding out being in the AP Top 25, Young said. “But I feel like there is more on the table. I feel like Top 25 is just a number.”

After the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournaments were pulled right from under the Scarlet Knights, there are expectations from outside the program and inside the program.

“Our main goal is to win a national championship,” Young said. “We would love to reverse last year. First time in a long time we would have gotten into the tournament. We care and we wished we would have played in that, but I think far as everything else goes I feel like everybody's focus on this year and doing bigger and better things than we did last year.”

Because of the pandemic that is ongoing, the NCAA is allowing the players to keep a year of eligibility, essentially meaning this year is a free year and their clocks freeze.

Young, even though he is a senior, could come back next year, but he hasn’t given it much thought.

“I'm just focused on what we can do right now and this year,” Young said. “We'll talk about that at the end of the season next year to see if next year is even worth coming back.”