Tech Talk Live Notes: Hunter Cattoor and Mike Young

On Thursday, Virginia Tech men’s basketball guard Hunter Cattoor and head coach Mike Young joined Mike Burnop on Tech Talk Live. They discussed the Hokies’ current stretch of games, including the loss to Miami, and the road ahead.

Hunter Cattoor

On Wednesday night’s loss to Miami:

That was a tough one. We had a great atmosphere out there. It was fun to be back home in front of Cassell. It was a tough one. You never want to lose a game, but losing on a half-court buzzer beater hurts a little bit more.

On the difficulty of being on the road so much in a short stretch:

It was. Went to Boston College, flew straight from there to North Carolina, so it kind of felt like an NBA road trip where you kinda just never come home on those road swings. But it was fun. As a kid, you dream of doing stuff like this, and going to different places and different arenas and playing, so it was fun.

On his journey to Virginia Tech:

I was at Bishop Moore [High School]. Kind of as a kid growing up, playing basketball, playing football, all sports, always had a ball in my hand and always dreamed of playing division one, whatever it was – football or basketball. And then once I got to my sophomore year I decided I just wanted to play basketball, so I ended up just working hard at that and senior year committed to Wofford College, in Spartanburg, to coach Young. Went through the whole senior year [thinking] that I was going there and ended up making the switch here to Virginia Tech and it’s been nothing but great.

On the switch from Wofford to Virginia Tech:

It was surreal for me. Coach Young called me and he told me that night, he was like, ‘Hey, I believe in you. I want you to come with me. Since the first day I recruited you, I thought you could play at all the levels.’ So that’s just good having a coach that has belief in you and your ability to do whatever you want.

On playing quarterback in high school:

I played basically quarterback my whole life. High school freshman year I played, and then after that I kind of just decided that I was going to love basketball more, I just had more love for basketball. I grew up a huge football fan, still am a huge football fan.

Did he love the contact of football?

I did. I loved the contact of football.

On the transition from high school to college basketball:

It’s a lot different. Once you get to this league, everyone can score. Everyone came from their high schools where they were the leading scorer, scored the 1500 points, stuff like that. So you kind of have to find your role on the team and what you can do and help the team win, whether that’s scoring, whether that’s defense and stuff like that.

On the first half against Miami:

I think they got into us a little bit. I think we got a little out of character, got loose with the ball, weren’t being strong with the ball, and that was the emphasis going into halftime that we talked about as players and coaches, we just gotta be strong with the ball. When you’re passing the ball, the person that’s getting it has to go meet passes. I think we did a lot better in the second half with that.

On playing better offense in the second half:

We did play a lot better and I think we got back to playing Virginia Tech basketball in the second half. I think we just gotta figure out how to do that for forty minutes.

On the last minute of the game:

Had the ball with 28 seconds left. Coach called a play. Kind of wanted to run it down and run it at ten seconds left to hopefully get the last shot. Got the ball, came off a screen, about five or six seconds left. I felt an opening, felt comfortable taking that shot so I took it, probably took it a little bit too early, just left some time on the clock. If I could go back and replay it, I’d probably bring the ball out, run a little bit more time so we had the last shot with two or one second left. Took the shot, missed it. Felt comfortable with it. They came down and threw up a halfcourt shot and made it.

On his comfortability with the shot:

I was comfortable with the shot I took. I’ve made it in practice. I’ve made it in games plenty of times, so I’m not disappointed in that shot.

On the energy of the crowd in the second half:

I was hoping [they’d] miss two free throws and get the bacon thing going, because they always go crazy for that.

On Justyn Mutts performance and almost getting a triple-double:

That just speaks to the player he is. He’s just an all-around player. You kinda put him wherever you need him and he’s going to perform for you. So whether you need him to score the ball, he’s proven he can do that. He’s proven he can rebound. He’s proven he’s one of the better passers in this league.

On the North Carolina game:

North Carolina’s always physical. They’re always known for having their bigs be physical and rebounding. I thought we were there for most of the game and it just kind of slipped out the last couple of minutes.

On the Boston College game:

We kind of knew going in we had a good scout for it, felt comfortable, thought a game we could win. Just going with kind of the same thing, with a couple minutes left, kind of bang-bang plays, and you find yourself down one, down two, and we just missed shots at the end.

On having an early shootaround compared to one the night before:

At the end of the day we’re still basketball players. We love this game. You get practice before. Once you get to the arena, you get your two hours to warm up, get used to the gym and you’re kind of good to go from there.

On the experience of the NCAA Tournament game vs. Florida:

It was definitely an experience that I learned from. Whether we won or lost that game, it was just a fun experience, especially able to have a little bit of fans there through the whole COVID year. Most arenas were empty so you really didn’t get to see anyone there. But NCAA, they opened it up a little bit for the tournament, just to get that experience, that feel of NCAA Tournament basketball – I think that helped me going into the offseason to see what I had to work on and gave me that little motivation to get back this year.

On having a quicker release:

Yeah, I have [worked on it]. In this league, there are a lot of long and athletic people, so you gotta work on your shot and get it off quick.

On a scoring output like the St. Bonaventure game:

It’s awesome, honestly. You go through your workout so many times through the day and you get so many shots up, you feel like everytime I’m shooting the ball out there I feel like it’s going in, so when I miss it I’m looking at the rim, looking at the ball thinking there’s something wrong with the ball because I’m thinking I didn’t do anything wrong. But when you have a game like that it’s – I’m blessed to have a game like that and it’s awesome.

On the team’s chemistry:

We’re a well-connected group. The adversity we’re going through right now, I don’t think it’s broke us. If anything, it’s brought us more together. I think we have a good group of guys. Everyone likes everyone. We don’t have a problem with any of it. We’re always hanging around with each other. We like each other and it’s been good.

On what he likes to do off the court:

I like to golf when it’s a little bit warmer out. Right now it’s not, it doesn’t feel like Florida here.

On his family:

Mom and dad are back home in Florida. I’ll be able to see them this weekend at the Florida State game which will be good. My brother’s out in Colorado right now doing med school, so he’s just started that, and then my sister’s in New Jersey with her two kids and her husband.

On getting a lot of tickets to the Florida State game:

A bunch of my friends from back home go there and then a bunch of people I went to high school with go there, so it’ll be a good reunion to see them again.

On his favorite ACC arena:

Cassell is number one, gotta put that out there. UNC, that was my first time playing there this past week, I like that arena, that environment. 

On the Florida State game:

I’m excited for it. They’re a big team, always have been. I’m excited to get to practice tomorrow, get prepped and go out and win the game.

Mike Young

On Hunter Cattoor:

He’s an all-star, as they all are. Hunter’s one of those pillars that we’ve built this thing on through three years now and just a sharp young man, great family and pleasure to coach. What he’s done to his game in his time here has been pretty remarkable. What he’s doing defensively, night in and night out. You plug him in to the other team’s best player. Last night was hard to choose from with [Kameron] McGusty and [Isaiah] Wong and Charlie Moore.

We had him on Wong and he just did a marvelous job. We had him on someone other than Seabron against N.C. State and [he] guarded Seabron the second game and did a masterful job. He’s doing it night in and night out. He’ll guard Caleb Mills on Saturday at Florida State, who’s a really dynamic guard. Just a hard worker. Really smart. Angles. Tough. He’s a good one.

On taking Cattoor with him from Wofford to Virginia Tech:

Little does he know, I was in such a bind to get warm bodies. I thought he might be a little bit easier. I knew he was a good player. I said to our staff when we took him down there, that I think the kid can play anywhere, and I meant that. Get to Virginia Tech and I remembered that comment and I still felt strongly about it. I think his mom and dad came up with him the next weekend and told me he wanted to come and I’m fortunate, we’re all fortunate that he made that decision. He’s been a heck of a player in a Hokie uniform.

On Miami’s buzzer beater:

David Teel, who I admire greatly, asked me after the game if I’d ever had an opponent hit a shot mid-court like that and I don’t recall, and I’ve coached over 600 of them as a head coach. I can remember the College of Charleston back early in my career, 2002, 2003, 2004 and Phillip McCandies, who transferred from Virginia Tech to the College of Charleston.

I knew exactly what they were going to run. Bobby Cremins was the head coach at the time. They had a great point guard, Dontaye Draper, who’s going to come off of McCandies’ ball screen. McCandies was one-for-14, I can remember it like it was yesterday. And Draper, who was terrific from Baltimore, Maryland threw the ball back to McCandies and the ball went through the net with such a force that I thought it was going to take the net off, it was so clean, and lost on that one.

But never one like that. Charlie Moore made a heck of a shot. Sitting there looking at it, I don’t know what kind of angle I had. We contested, we got our hands up. He let that thing fly and got it home for a Miami win.

On the twelve turnovers in the first half:

They were really ratty. They’re really ratty with their hands. Those guards are really good. We didn’t score enough to win. Twelve [turnovers] is sloppy basketball, drives me insane. Can’t play that way and expect to win. We come back and I think we only turned it over twice in the second half. Twelve first half turnovers, probably lucky to be down 35-30.

But just something that is unexpected, something that you don’t expect to have to address at halftime. Justyn Mutts had a couple of those. Storm [Murphy] had a couple of those. Sean Pedulla, who’s coming on like GangBusters, playing really good basketball had four. And goodness gracious, hard to win that way. To their credit, got it squared away, played a much better second half.

On Jordan Miller’s big first half:

He’s good. Dave Paulsen, the former coach at George Mason, had Jordan and he came to the game last night and said when he came in he couldn’t shoot a lick, and worked at it and worked at it. I’ve seen that kid. That kid’s a difference maker now. Did I expect him to have 14 [points] at the half? No. But he’s a formidable player, a really nice pickup for the Hurricanes.

Along with [Sam] Waardenburg, who’s there, if you’ll recall, our first year together, he hurt his foot, had a couple of surgeries on his foot. He’s back healthy and he’s a good player, too. Step out and make a three. I think he made one last night. He’s a good basketball player.

On Darius Maddox’s performance against Miami:

He was really active. Light on his feet. The scoring is not an issue. I thought he was just as good defensively and that has been the sore spot for us. He’s gotta bow his neck and guard somebody. He did last night, now.

Matched him up with McGusty, who can score on a lot of people. He set the stance and fought and didn’t let the thing get to the middle of the lane. He stuck him there at the foul line and McGusty did everything he could to shake loose and jumped up and Darius blocked his shot. He really helped our team. I mean, he was terrific with his transition defense and communicating. Proud of him.

I thought David N’Guessan had another good night. Sean Pedulla had a freshman night, and that’s going to happen at times. But you’ve seen every game we’ve played, that kid’s coming on and he’s doing a lot more to help our team than he is to hurt our team. He’s tough. He understands the game. Just gotta take better care of the basketball and there’s nobody around that understands that more than he does.

On Kameron McGusty’s big second half:

You go back and watch this. I watched it last night, I watched it again today with our staff. The last three made at the top of the floor, Nahiem Alleyne could not have guarded the doggone thing any better. I thought he was going to block the bottom of the ball. McGusty got over top of him just a little bit and made it. Like Wong, he’s a three-level guy. Can catch it, shoot it from three. Can get between his legs, downhill, to the 15 and pull up and make it. He can get to the rim and finish there with those circus shots.

He and Wong both can get to the top of their jump and kind of wait for that defender to fall off and flip it off on the backboard and get it in. Those are two really good basketball players, as is Charlie Moore. I thought our team did a really good job on all three. You’re not going to shut great players out. I thought all-in-all, our guys fought and our team defense was good.

I was a little surprised with their field goal percentage. Wong hit some tough shots. He got Keve [Aluma] off his feet for those three foul shots up three, that hurt. We get a missed shot, the doggone thing comes bouncing out of there right to it and the old saying that that loose ball always finds its way into the hands of their best shooter. That Miami kid made the right play and flipped it over there to Wong and he got Aluma off his feet and got into him for three shots.

On Keve Aluma’s performance:

Night in and night out. I thought he was a lot better on the glass. I thought he did a really nice job on Waardenburg, which was a pivotal matchup for us. They were doing some things – played a lot of different things in the second half that I thought went very, very well and we’re going to stick with it here for a little bit. I think Keve appreciated that and was able to screen a little bit more due to some other things offensively that really helped our team.

On the ball movement of his offense:

It was a lot of fun to watch. It’s an easy game when the ball’s going in the basket. Unfortunately for us, the ball’s going in the basket on Miami’s end also. I thought offensively we had nice flow and the ball moved sharply and unselfish play. Twenty assists on twenty-five field goals is impressive and it was a lot of fun to see.

On shooting 50% from three: 

Just a head scratcher to make 13 of them and lose the game. Just gut-wrenching, but Maddox was shooting the ball well. Cattoor. Nahiem, I thought Nahiem had another very good basketball game for us. Aluma got a three down in the first half. Mutts got one down in front of our bench in the second half. We were ringing the bell. Got to play just a little bit better, night in and night out.

On the guards rebounding well at North Carolina:

Yeah, I think it was the North Carolina game, Nahiem had five defensive rebounds. Hunter had seven rebounds total. That’s a big deal. Mutts is going to do it night in, night out. I think he had double figure rebounds again last night. Aluma is capable, he’s gotta do it every night. But you’ve gotta get some help from those guards. We’ll need some help from those guards on Saturday, I can tell you that.

On the dealing with early fouls against Boston College:

We’re up ten at that point in the game, I think it’s the five-minute mark. I played Mutts with two fouls last night for a click. You just don’t want to take a kid into the locker room that you depend on, like Justyn, with three fouls. I’ve never been opposed to playing people with two fouls in the first half, three fouls in the second half. You’ve got five of them. Don’t want to sit a person. It’s something that you’ve gotta manage now. 

Aluma picked up really a bad second foul. He reached on [TJ] Bickerstaff around midcourt, just inside the frontcourt. Now the dynamics of the thing change. We’re up ten, I just want to get to the locker room. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we were up two. And I thought that was a big swing in that game. It’s hard, [for] good players like Mutts and Keve, to sit them for that length of time. I did want to get them to the locker room with just two fouls, but looking back I thought that was a big swing in that game.

On Jalen Haynes getting some minutes against North Carolina:

Needed something and he’s practiced well. He’s a good basketball player. He’s one of those freshmen that needs a little bit more time in the smokehouse and he works very well. He’s practicing very well. He’s a part of our scout team right now.

Just need another body versus [Armando] Bacot and some of those other guys at North Carolina. He didn’t get on the floor very much, but what he did get he took advantage of. He was flying around, he was responsible with his ball screen coverages and recovered back to Bacot and did a nice job of boxing him out a couple of times that he was on the floor. Didn’t think there was a very good match for him.

We thought that we could get, barring any foul trouble, we thought we could get through last night’s game – they’re not going to play the backup big [Deng] Gak, number twenty-two or [Anthony] Walker, number one. They weren’t going to play those guys very much. Thought David N’Guessan would be, along with Justyn and Keve, would be enough to get us to the end. They were. They all three played a good ball game.

On making adjustments against Armando Bacot in the second half:

So many times it’s not what you did against Bacot or a formidable post player, it’s what you do with their guards. If their guards are getting by your guards at the top and your post players are having to step up, now they shoot over you. You don’t have anybody on them, unless your rotational rebound is sound and guard chipping down on Bacot, that’s a tall order for Hunter Cattoor to chip down on Bacot.

But just did a better job of keeping Caleb Love and RJ Davis out of the middle of the lane and getting shots contested and that left us body on body on the backline and Justyn on [Brady] Manek or Keve on Manek and the other on Bacot, and we did a better job rebounding the darn ball.

On Florida State:

Good again, as always. Caleb Mills, a guard that Hunter will be matched up with, is really a really good offensive player. Those two seven-foot kids on the front line that are just disruptive. Neither are great offensive players, but man they’re a load. [Malik] Osborne is back, which seems to be his ninth year. 

Most talented kid on the roster is 35, Matthew Cleveland. Still coming into his own. They play a seven-foot kid at the four spot, John Butler, who’s from Greenville, South Carolina. I’ve known John since he was a seventh grader. John starts, he’s only playing fifteen minutes a game, but can make a shot, he’s a tough kid. [Anthony] Polite in the backcourt is back, left-handed kid, can make a shot. Really wants to get to his left hand and get to the basket. 

This league, night in and night out, you know what you’re going to get. North Carolina, Miami, Miami’s really good, Florida State on Saturday. No rest. Let’s load it up. Let’s go fight and see what happens.

On Miami’s two losses to Florida State:

I watched both those games today. Miami with any luck at all wins both of those games, especially the game at Florida State. Florida State hit a circus shot with seven seconds on the game clock and Wong got a great shot off in regulation, missed it to lose by one. They’re right there. They’re right there to win the game, both of them. They were down twenty-four points in the second half and come roaring back and played really well.

On the number of Virginia Tech fans at the North Carolina game:

Everywhere you go. Down in Charlotte, the St. Bonaventure game. N.C. State. I don’t care where you are, there’s going to be a bunch of Hokie fans. Loyal, and great to have them there. They’re vocal, always great to see them.

On the season being only 36 days until the end of the regular season:

You just grab on and you just go. I almost fell out of my chair the other day. I had no idea that we were nearing the end of the month of January. We’re going to play our best basketball here on Saturday and moving into the month of February and the most wonderful time of the year, March. I’m looking forward to it, I’m excited about our team.

On Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton:

I think coach is 74, 75. 76, and he doesn’t look a day over 60. Takes good care of himself and he is a wonderful gentleman and needless to say a terrific coach.