Thomas Young entered his freshman basketball season at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County last year with a confident attitude typical of many 18-year-olds.
The Philadelphia native was the all-time leading scorer at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High with 1,641 career points and averaged 25.3 points and 8.7 rebounds as a senior. Young, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound guard, thought college basketball would be more of the same.
However, Young quickly became aware of the harsh realities for young players making the transition from high school to college ball.
“Coming off my senior season, I thought I?d just come into college and put up big numbers,” Young said. “But the game is much faster and the players are much stronger in college than in high school.”
Following last season, Young knew he had to work on many elements of his game, especially adjusting to a change in position. In high school, he mainly played small or power forward, while in college, he is asked to play a lot of shooting guard.
Young appears to have adjusted well in his sophomore campaign. He is currently second on UMBC (9-13, 5-4 America East Conference) in scoring (10.7 points per game) and rebounding (4.7) while playing about 30 minutes a game.
Two of Young?s better performances came in the last week. On Sunday, he had 13 points and five rebounds in a 51-48 victory over Binghamton. Last Thursday, he had nine points and 10 rebounds in a 45-44 win over New Hampshire.
UMBC goes after its third straight win tonight when it plays at defending America East champion Albany (14-7, 7-2). Prior to this recent winning streak, the Retrievers lost four of five conference games.
“Getting a win over a team like Albany would be huge for us,” Young said. “I don?t think we would have bounced back like we have this year last season.”
Retrievers coach Randy Monroe said Young has the ability to be one of the top players inthe conference.
“Thomas Young doesn?t realize how good a player he can be,” Monroe said. “When you?re young, you don?t always see the same things that a head coach sees. He?s shown the ability to grab a key rebound, drive inside or take a key shot when we need him to. Having him do those things will only help other players on the team become better.”
