PITTSBURGH -- When the final seconds ticked down in what almost certainly was his final college game, Oklahoma guard Trae Young took his turn down the handshake line and walked off the court expressionless, without even a glance toward his family, standing and clapping for him.

Nobody on the Oklahoma bench expected to lose to Rhode Island in the NCAA tournament on Thursday, 83-78 in overtime, despite being the lower seed. Maybe everybody on that bench thought Young would help the Sooners snap out of the funk that plagued them over a dismal final month.

Young struggled in that final month, too, and now we are left to ponder a completed season that began with his skyrocket toward celebrity status and ended with losses in nine of their final 11 games. To say what Young did this season qualifies as unexpected is an understatement. He put up video-game numbers in high school, but the headliner on his AAU team was Michael Porter Jr. And the headliner in their freshman year of college hoops seemed destined to be Michael Porter Jr. at Missouri.

But Porter hurt his back in the season opener and missed the entire regular season. Young started putting up points and dishing out assists on a level nobody had ever seen, and suddenly a sport in desperate need of any good publicity got one as headlines turned away from the FBI investigation and toward a quiet, humble kid from Norman, Oklahoma.

“I made the big mistake of watching their early-season games first,” Rhode Island coach Dan Hurley said. “I watched that Wichita State game first, and I didn't sleep for a day and a half. I coached the J.R. Smiths and Tristan Thompsons as a high school coach, and he's as special as anyone I've ever been on the court with.”

Comparisons to Stephen Curry became the norm, too, and soon NBA players could not get enough of Young, either. Curry gushed about him. So did LeBron James, who told reporters he had been a fan since he saw Young play as an eighth-grader.

Young accepted all the comparisons and compliments with gratitude. This season was never about the spotlight. It was about making Oklahoma better. Ask Young about the most difficult thing he had to handle all season, and he says it was all the losing.

“I hate losing,” Young said. “That's not in my DNA, losing. I left everything I could, and I know my teammates did as well -- everything they could on that floor.”

Rhode Island keyed on Young early in the game -- he had only four field goal attempts at halftime (he made them all, by the way). When the second half began, his shot was off, but he eventually got going to put Oklahoma back into the game, down six points with four minutes remaining. His two layups got the Sooners within two points. Then he hit a 3-pointer, thanks to an epic screen to give Oklahoma the lead, and it became obvious why Young captivated the nation on that one play.

Rhode Island came back to send the game into overtime. In the extra period, Young tried to get his teammates involved and gave up several open shots to pass instead. The only field goal he got was a layup with 13 seconds left and the game essentially out of reach.

With that, his unexpected freshman season ended. The fact that Young looked fairly emotionless went along with his personality and demeanor all season. Never high, never low. Always tried to stay even-keeled for his teammates.

In the locker room afterward, Young said he was more concerned about keeping his teammates’ heads up than anything else. When it came time to leave to head toward the postgame news conference, he and teammate Jamuni McNeace ran into Fatts Russell and two other Rhode Island players in the hallway. They exchanged fist bumps and moved on.

Asked to put his season into perspective once at the podium, Young said, “I summarize this season as just different. I mean, this -- I mean, this season was a roller coaster. I mean, starting off hot, cooling down, winning a few games, and going back to losing. It's a roller coaster. It's definitely tough. Like I say, you never want it to end, but this is the biggest day in college basketball.”

Whether he leaves for the NBA draft feels like a foregone conclusion, even though Young made no declarations Thursday. He says he plans to take a few days to talk to his family before a formal announcement. Young is a surefire lottery pick, and even though Oklahoma struggled to end the season, he will end up becoming the first player in NCAA history to lead the nation in scoring and assists.

It is hard to keep that in perspective because his season felt so disjointed. Young dominated, and Oklahoma dominated, but just as quickly, the Sooners and Young could not maintain their momentum. Remember, this is a team that won 11 games last season, and with Young, they won 18 and made the NCAA tournament.

It feels like a letdown because his performance raised expectations so high. But let’s also try to remember nobody really knew who Young was before the season began. With his season over, his name will be in the NCAA history books for some time to come.

“It’s been a surprise,” said Rayford Young, Trae's father. “I can’t use the word surprise enough. He went from being a McDonald’s All-American side guy to being the face of college basketball.”

ESPN college basketball reporter Jeff Goodman contributed to this report