Tigers' Young dominates two Ivy sports

It is on the court tonight, however, where the 6'10" center has Penn most worried. It seems Princeton's Chris Young has a habit of terrorizing athletically inclined Cantabrigians. On Saturday night, Young the basketball player tormented the visiting Harvard Crimson, scoring 30 points on 10-of-11 shooting to lead the home team to an 18-point win. In April, Young the pitcher used his impeccable control and dominant array of pitches to shut down the Harvard bats, tossing a three-hit, 10-strikeout, complete-game shutout. To say that Young -- who as a freshman in 1998-99 became the first male Ivy Leaguer in history to cop Rookie of the Year honors in two sports -- is a versatile athlete is an understatement, like saying the Penn-Princeton basketball game tonight at Jadwin will be important to the outcome of the Ivy League race. On the diamond, Young led the Ivies with a microscopic 1.38 ERA. In Ivy League play he went 4-1, striking out 36 batters in 34 innings to earn first team All-Ivy honors. Baseball America lists the Dallas native as the top pro prospect in the Ancient Eight. It is not on the diamond but on the hardwood, however, where Young has attacked the Princeton record books with a fervor not seen since Bill Bradley walked the campus in the early '60s. In his first year, the Basketball Weekly freshman All-America selection set a Princeton record for blocks in a season (55). He also set Tigers freshman standards for points (387) and rebounds (160). Young started all 30 games as a freshman, steadily improving over the course of the season. After averaging 5.0 points in his first five games, Young scored in double figures in 17 of the final 19 contests, posting a 19.7 points per game average over the Tigers' final two regular season games and three-game postseason run in the NIT. Most frightening about Young's game, though, is his uncharacteristic versatility. While plenty of centers are called upon to redirect shots on defense and drop in hooks and dunks on offense, Young possesses the rare ability to step back and hit from the outside. Against Harvard on Saturday, he nailed 4-for-5 from three-point land. In 51 career games, he has made 34.6 percent (37-for-107) of his three-point attempts and dished out 156 assists (3.1 per game). By contrast, veteran Penn center Geoff Owens has missed all three of his long-distance attempts and distributed 68 assists in 46 games dating to the start of last season. "It would be nice if Chris Young had a one-dimensional game and you could concentrate on that, but he doesn't," said Penn coach Fran Dunphy, who will try to figure out a way to stop Young when his Quakers visit the Tigers tonight. "In addition to his own scoring, he creates a lot of opportunities for his teammates. He has 70 assists this season, which is pretty remarkable for a big guy. He's a multi-dimensional guy, and somebody we have to concentrate a lot of effort on." It seems the only thing that can stop Young is the whistle -- he fouled out of both Penn-Princeton battles last year. However, Dunphy does not believe that Young can be forced into foul trouble. "I don't think you try to do anything out of the ordinary, but you also say to Geoff Owens or Ugonna [Onyekwe] who are going to be matched up to him down inside most of the night, if you can get him in the air and make him foul you that'd be great for us," Dunphy said. "But you can't count on that? you just try to do the best you can and hopefully get him into foul trouble and limit his minutes." Owens, who scored just four points in last year's heartbreaker at the Palestra but bounced back with a rock-solid 14-point, seven-rebound performance in the title-clinching, pride-restoring win at Jadwin last March, knows that he will have his hands full when it comes to stopping Young. "I have a tough job on my hands. I have to try to stop him one-on-one," Owens said. "His outside shooting, that's something you have to really worry about, especially with their offense. If you sag to try to prevent the backdoor cuts, he can beat you with the three-point shot." Young has even found a way to pick up 30 steals this season, more than any member of the Quakers, whose top pilferer, Michael Jordan, has 25 steals. All of which leads Dunphy to scratch his head when asked to name the sophomore's weaknesses. "He handles [the ball] well, makes plays, makes shots, both inside and outside -- I can't find too many weaknesses to be honest with you."