RELATED: Young schedules official visit to Texas Tech

Five-star prospect Trae Young, the No. 14 prospect in the Rivals150 announced last week that he would be officially visiting Texas Tech next month.

Young is a Red Raider legacy as his father, Rayford Young, was a four-time letter winner at Texas Tech and earned second-team All-Big 12 honors as a senior. While there may be similarities between father and son on the basketball court, their recruiting processes are completely different.

Rayford played for Pampa, Texas in the 1990s. Trae spends a lot of his time on NBA All-Star Kevin Durant’s AAU team. Rayford went to tournaments in Lubbock. Trae plays in tournaments in all across the country and just returned from a Nike trip to the Bahamas. Rayford earned his lone offer from the Red Raiders just months before graduating high school. Trae has held 20-plus offers ever since he was a sophomore.

When it comes to Texas Tech, the school had virtually no competition for Rayford’s services whereas the Red Raiders are currently battling top programs such as Kansas, Kentucky, and Oklahoma for Trae’s talents.

“Trae is so much better than I was, it’s night and day,” Rayford Young said. “I’m comfortable saying that because I was able to teach him everything I knew while at the same time also teaching him everything that I didn’t know through my experiences.

“Trae grew up watching a lot of Steve Nash and the other good point guards like Chris Paul. He is even able to get on the phone sometimes and talk to Chris Paul about different things. That was something I didn’t have as a kid. I couldn’t pick up the phone and call Kevin Durant. I couldn’t pick up the phone and call LeBron James. I wasn’t calling Michael Jordan as a kid. He’s been able to do those things because of his travels.”

As a five-star prospect, Trae basically has the pick of the lot when it comes to his future college. Texas Tech has been right up there with the top programs as of late – a credit to new head coach Chris Beard and his staff.

“I was excited (when he set up a visit to Tech),” Young said. “That was a place that has been, and always will be, special to me. He has really gotten close to coach (Chris) Ogden, the assistant coach there, and they have talked every day. Coach Beard has also been really good at staying in contact with Trae and letting him know how much they cared for him, and he (Trae) felt really good about that.”

Comparing basketball history alone, the Red Raiders have never signed a prospect of Trae’s caliber in their program’s history while it is a common occurrence for a Kansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma to sign five-star talent. Texas Tech is also just starting to find itself again on the basketball court, while his other finalists have made multiple Final Four trips.

Despite all of that, Beard and the Red Raiders aren't backing down.

“One thing that Trae said that he loves about coach Beard,” said Young, “is that he (Beard) was sitting at our house one night and said that he wasn’t afraid of Kansas, he wasn’t afraid of Kentucky, he doesn’t care if they were recruiting my son. He thinks he is going to be able to win (the recruiting battle) just like they probably feel like they are going to win.”

Since day one, Beard has been recruiting the five-star point guard very heavily. In fact, one of the very first calls Beard made when he was officially announced as head coach was to Trae. The next day after his arrival to Lubbock, Beard was up in Oklahoma and was at Young's home in Oklahoma City. This type of effort from the head coach didn’t go unnoticed by the family.

“Trae was excited when he was talking to coach (Tubby) Smith,” Young said, “and he was getting really interested in Texas Tech, but the thing that changed Trae’s interest in Tech and really got him excited was when coach Beard got the job and the first call he made was to Trae. He called and told Trae that he was going to be at Trae’s house the next night -- he kept the promise. He was sitting in my living room the next night. That changed Trae’s whole outlook on Texas Tech.

“Even though he was semi-interested when coach Smith was there, what Beard did was a big deal. This guy had just left UNLV to get the job with my alma mater and the first thing he did was call my son? That was big. He was then at my house the next night. That made Trae realize that coach Beard was serious about what he was talking about.”

From an outside perspective, Texas Tech’s inclusion in Young's list of finalists and planned official visit, may just look like a son throwing his dad a bone by including his former school in the discussion. However, Rayford doesn’t get that vibe from his son and feels that Beard and the Red Raiders are firmly in the running.

“It’s not about him going there because I played there or just visiting because all of this other stuff," Young said. "It’s about him being confident enough in his ability, and he feels comfortable there. One thing you want to do when you pick a school is that you want to feel comfortable. Chris Beard and coach Ogden have made Trae feel comfortable.

“Coach Beard and coach Ogden have made it a fact and a point to tell him that if he comes to Tech, he will be the highest-rated player to ever come to Texas Tech. He has the chance to be the greatest player to come to Texas Tech. He has the chance to have his jersey hang from the rafters and take Texas Tech to heights that they have never been before. For Trae, that is what it is all about. Coach Beard has told him that he was going to get the ball to him from day one and would tell him to go and lead them to a Final Four. That’s what Trae is excited about, it’s bigger to him than just going there because I went to school there and all that other stuff. He is comfortable, and he is excited.”

For any high school athlete, hearing that they can be the number one guy is a big deal and Texas Tech offers that to a prospect of Trae’s caliber, however, Rayford made a point that while Trae could go to Tech and be the number one player, he can easily go to Kentucky and Kansas and be the number one player as well. Trae is confident in his abilities as a player according to his dad.

Trae has is official visits scheduled to four of his final six schools. Oklahoma gets the first visit in mid-September followed by Texas Tech and then Kansas and Kentucky in October. Trips to Washington and Oklahoma State will be thrown in there, too. Trae has the chance to have his visits in order and would be on track for an early signing if he so chooses. However, Trae is going to hold off on signing early and will wait till the late period.

According to Rayford, the delay in signing is for one reason: they want to watch the Red Raiders play.

“He is probably going to be a late signer because that is one of the reasons he is considering a school like Texas Tech,” Young said. “We want to watch them play. We want to watch them play and see what they look like. If he is excited about how they are playing and how they are looking, quite frankly, that is where he is going to go.”