Trae Young was named first-team all-American on Tuesday by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. That’s no small feat.
Young, a freshman who this week declared for the NBA Draft, is just the seventh Sooner since the 1940s to make first-team all-American.
First-team all-American is hard to achieve. Only five spots available. Players as great as Big Country and Harvey Grant didn’t make first-team all-American (both were second team as seniors).
In the early days of college basketball, the premier all-American team, selected by the Helms Foundation, had 10 first-team selections. But that was in the pre-World War II days.