Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young was asked to name his all-time college basketball starting five on his From The Point podcast recently, and the results were rather interesting.
“Gotta have my guy (Shaquille O’Neal) at the five,” Young said. “At the four, even though he called the timeout, I’mma put Chris Webber. At the three, (Kevin Durant) at Texas was cold, Player of the Year. My two, I’mma put Steph (Curry) and then my one I’mma put Jimmer Fredette… We ain’t losing, people sleep on Jimmer.”
Fredette is certainly the most controversial selection here. He didn’t have a lot of success in the NBA but certainly had quite the career at BYU. Fredette was unanimously named National College Player of the Year in 2011 after averaging 28.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.3 steals per game in his senior year. He was quite simply a terrific scorer in college.
As for his backcourt partner here, Stephen Curry was the NCAA scoring leader and a consensus first-team All-American in 2009 at Davidson. Curry averaged 25.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.1 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game for his college career.
His former teammate Kevin Durant comes in at the three. Durant played just one season at Texas, averaging 25.8 points, 11.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.9 steals, and 1.9 blocks per game in 2006-07. Durant’s exploits led to him being the consensus National College Player of the Year in 2007.
Chris Webber at the four was perhaps a slightly surprising pick here, but he was part of the iconic Fab Five at the University of Michigan. They made it to the National Championship game in 1992 and 1993 but unfortunately lost on both occasions.
In 1993, Webber infamously called for a timeout when the team didn’t have one against North Carolina, which basically cost them the game. It somewhat overshadowed a fine college career in which he averaged 17.4 points, 10.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.5 steals, and 2.5 blocks per game.
Lastly, we get to Shaquille O’Neal. O’Neal played for three seasons at LSU and averaged 21.6 points, 13.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.2 steals, and 4.6 blocks per game. O’Neal was the Associated Press Player of the Year in 1991 and led the NCAA in blocks and rebounds once.
While that’s a pretty good team, none of the players in it actually won a national championship, which is quite interesting. Still, it wouldn’t be easy to come up with a starting five that would beat that one.
As for Young’s college career, it was short but impressive. He averaged 27.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 8.7 assists, 1.7 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game for Oklahoma in 2017-18. Young became the first player to lead the NCAA in scoring and assists in a single season in that campaign, but like the five players he chose, he failed to win the title. The Sooners were eliminated in the first round by the Rhode Island Rams.
Unfortunately for Young, it’s been a similar story for him at the pro level as well. He has had some great statistical seasons, but with the exception of 2021, the Hawks haven’t even gotten out of the first round of the playoffs.
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