Trae Young, gravity, and the best story in basketball this season

He was an afterthought. Duke's Marvin Bagley III, Arizona's Deandre Ayton, Texas' Mohamed Bamba, and Missouri's Michael Porter Jr. were the names that were constantly being uttered; these were the guys that mattered when scouts forecast the 2018 NBA Draft.

Trae Young was 23rd on ESPN's top 100 high school recruits for 2017. Dive into ESPN's first 2018 NBA mock draft - made prior to the start of the college basketball season - and there isn't a sign of Young, even in the second round. It's difficult to garner attention as a 6-foot-2, 180-pound point guard playing for a program that wasn't ranked among the top 25.

Maybe most assumed he'd stick around for a couple years at Oklahoma - that's fair. With Young's lack of size and questionable athleticism, scouts still respected him as a great shooter with a high IQ. This draft buried him, though. Pro teams will shy away from the little guy, and it's hard to blame them.

On a roster chock-full of less-than-ideal talent, it wasn't going to be easy for the crafty point guard to stand out. He was performing admirably through his first three games, averaging 21.7 points and 9.3 assists, and was 10-of-25 from three.

Then something special happened.

Thirty-three points and eight assists in a win over Portland and a 43-point explosion on just 22 shots to take down Oregon put scouts on notice. This kid showed he can do it all on offense.

Young possesses generational shooting ability, something few before have been gifted with. Comparisons with Stephen Curry and Mahmoud Abdul Rauf started to let loose. Young has become a can't-miss talent regardless of his build. He doesn't hesitate to shoot and his 3-point range begins just over the half-court line.

It's not just his shooting, however, that has turned heads; his crafty dribbling enables him to beat opposing defenders, regardless of his foot speed. He finishes well around the basket, and with big defenders protecting the rim, he's shown a wide-ranging package of floaters that he often utilizes when he enters the paint.

Young is leading the nation in points per game (30.3). With three contests of 43-plus points and never dipping below 20 since his 15-point debut, that's no surprise. He's also pacing the country in assists per game (9.6), and would become the first player to ever finish a college season leading in both categories should he continue his torrid pace.

Bagley is averaging 21.6 points and 11.5 rebounds. Ayton is dominating the interior with 19.7 points and 11.1 boards. Out in Europe, Luka Doncic continues to be the greatest European basketball prospect in history. Still, people have stopped paying so much attention to them.

How is Young so capable of dominating games without the physical tools that generally enable most to succeed? It's called gravity. Not the natural phenomenon, but, as ESPN's Kevin Pelton put it, "the one that governs where defenders position themselves and helps determine the success and failure of offenses."

Young's gravity dictates opposing defenses on the basketball court, forcing defenders to watch his every move and dragging them out of position, enabling him to become a pocket-sized destroyer of worlds. The gravity he's created, despite his apparent lack of athleticism, has awarded him the opportunity to show off his ridiculous range and has caused fans to gravitate toward "the next Steph Curry."

A prime example of this came Tuesday night, in what was arguably the biggest game of Oklahoma's season to date. Down late against Kansas, Young was expected to be the usual long-range gunner he's been all year. With the Sooners down by one with just over a minute to go, Young's gravity brought in four Kansas players as he curled underneath the rim, freeing up Christian James for a wide-open three to give Oklahoma a two-point lead.

A missed three by Kansas' Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk on the other end gave Oklahoma a chance to put the game out of reach. Again, all eyes focused on Young about 35 feet from the hoop, as he immediately found an open Brady Manek for the dagger.

Both plays are on display here:

Like Curry, Young has a habit of attracting opposing teams. Kansas is ranked fifth in the nation and have a veteran rotation consisting of two senior leaders but was forced to chase a freshmen. It's the sort of gravity that nabbed him an NCAA record-tying 22 assists in one game.

Prior to the victory over Kansas, it began to feel as though teams were quietly figuring out ways to slow Young down. He scored 48 points the game before in a loss to Oklahoma State, but required 39 shots to do so. He shot 52-of-132 in the five games prior - a poor 39.3 percent - leading to three losses during that span.

And yet, here we are, watching him get chased over screens and getting double- and triple-teamed at every corner. But he still willingly takes a step or two back, and fires away from the longest range imaginable.

On Saturday, he'll go to battle against Alabama; an intriguing matchup with Collin Sexton - the other best point guard prospect in America who got stuck playing three-on-five against Minnesota and still scored 40 points. Yet, his name hasn't been mentioned as much since that undermanned loss in late November.

It'll be a game that scouts should be giddy about. It's an opportunity to get an early look at two point guard terrors in a clash that should define their early draft stock. However, the narrative has shifted. This game has become more about what Young can and can't do against Sexton than anything else. Nearly everything in college basketball has become about Young. And it's been a hell of a ride so far.