Bring it in close, guys and gals. Are you ready for this? OK — let me lay it on you.

Trae Young is going to keep shooting ... a lot.

No. 4 Oklahoma on Saturday lost its second consecutive game to an unranked opponent, falling 83-81 in overtime on the road against Bedlam rival Oklahoma State. While everyone's favorite freshman scored a career-high 48 points against the Cowboys — his third 40-point outing of the season — he did so while going 14 of 39 from the field. The performance accounted for the third-worst shooting performance of Young's 18-game career.

By his lofty standards, he was abysmal in the first half. He connected on 4 of 15 field-goal attempts (26.8 percent) in the first half, going 2 for 8 from 3-point range (25 percent) and turning the ball over four times. Primarily checked by 6-6 Cowboys guard Tavarius Shine, Young shot early and often in the shot clock as OSU went up by as many as 19 before taking a 12-point lead into the break.

It prompted ESPN's broadcast tandem to question whether Young was trying to do too much, and whether his offensive appetite caused his teammates to take bad shots when they did have the ball for fear they might not get it back. But that's how it is for gunners, even great ones. Everyone's a fan when the ball is going in; they become critics when it isn't.

Young in the second half lit up the Cowboys, whose roster features his Norman North High (Okla.) teammate — but not-so-close friend — Lindy Waters (two facts repeated ad nauseam during the telecast). He relocated his feathery touch, going 10 of 24 (41.6 percent) the rest of the way. It was still shy well shy of his 45.3 percent season-long clip, but he had it locked and loaded from deep, knocking down 6 of 12 3-pointers while taking a little better care of the ball, giving it away just three times.

His assist to forward Kristian Doolittle with 2:13 left in the second half gave the Sooners a 69-64 score and enough distance from the Cowboys to win the game in regulation. But a triple by the Cowboys' Kendall Smith with nine seconds remaining in regulation forced overtime.

Neutral observers and avid supporters alike should get used to more of the same from Young. While it's improbable he takes 40 or more shots on Tuesday against Kansas, his field goal attempts have increased in games following losses three of four times this season. He's not afraid to bet on himself, and it's typically in the Sooners' best interest.

The first half against OSU won't be the last game he struggles, looking like a low-percentage, high-volume shooter (a la Hall-of-Fame little man Allen Iverson). The last 25 minutes certainly won't be the last time he sizzles in the same vein as two-time MVP for the NBA's Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry (the player to whom he is most often compared though his game). At this point in his development, he more mirrors former LSU standout Chris Jackson (now Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf) more.

Love it or hate it, Young's offensive game is predicated on traditionally ill-advised 3-pointers (coming into Saturday, he'd made less than a handful of mid-range shots) and getting to the foul line. That's what what made him who he is — the nation's leader in both scoring and assists. Eventually (read: inevitably), it's what will get him where he's going — a top-five pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.

It's what Sooners coach Lon Kruger brought Young on campus to be after witnessing him drop 42 points a game during his final year of prep ball in 2016-17. More importantly, it's what Oklahoma needs him to be. As effective as Young's teammates are, namely Christian James (12.1 ppg) and Brady Manek (11.3 ppg), their effectiveness is in many ways a byproduct of Young's. Even one of his poorest shooting games of the season Saturday, he, at 35.9 percent, was better than his teammates (32.5).

There's a reason he leads the country in usage (38.9), more than four percentage points more than Georgia State's D'Marcus Simonds (34.8), who ranks second in that category. At 92.2 points per game, the Sooners are No. 2 in the country in scoring. Last year, they were No. 7 ... in the Big 12.

Be clear: No. 11 is Beyonce. The rest of the Sooners are Kelly Rowland and them.

On OU's final possession against Oklahoma State, Young had to beat a double team to get the ball with less than six seconds remaining. He then weaved his way through a cadre of defenders to heave up a contested 3-pointer that you could tell was off the mark just before the buzzer sounded and time expired in overtime.

Young could've looked for a teammate to "make the right play" as announcers suggested. But he chose to allow his team's fate to rest on the flick of his wrist.

Why wouldn't he?