Tech Talk Live Notes: Darius Maddox and Mike Young

On Thursday, Virginia Tech men’s basketball guard Darius Maddox and head coach Mike Young joined Tech Talk Live. The two discussed the recent stretch of wins and the upcoming schedule, along with a handful of other topics.

Darius Maddox

On being a sports media and analytics major:

So mainly, I wanted to get more into broadcasting and just doing stuff like this. In the past, I spoke in front of crowds so I got more comfortable with speaking in front of people, but in terms of broadcasting, that’s a whole other world, so it’s just more to it than what meets the eye. But I’m learning and I’m taking it day-by-day.

On doing play by play for football in class:

It was football in Bill Roth’s class and I’m not the biggest football fan as it is. I’ve played basketball all my life. So I basically had to, in front of the class, speak play-by-play and at first it was crazy because it’s the whole chart. You have to look at players’ numbers and facts about them, just stuff that I never knew. Going into it, my partner, he carried me because I wasn’t speaking as much, I froze at times. But like as the game got, you know, on and on and Joe Burrow just kept doing this thing, I just got more comfortable with speaking. It went well towards the end.

On doing the analyst part:

Yeah, I did. So first I did color, and then I did play-by-play. So yeah, the play-by-play when I got more comfortable was definitely easier to you know, use my personality a little bit in terms of like plays being made and stuff like that.

More about the play-by-play class:

We literally just started. We had our first in-person class, which was the broadcasting. We had a quiz on some of the Bengals and the NFL stuff. I should be more getting into broadcasting.

On what he wants to do after basketball:

I’m really into clothes and art. My cousin actually has a clothing brand back home. He’s been dying to get me to tap more into that but I’ve been caught up in the season and trying to get wins. He makes clothes. He makes pants, T-shirts, hoodies, and stuff like that. And it’s more of like the more formal type of clothing.

His thoughts on dressing up:

My parents always taught me to dress properly wherever I’m going and I guess as I got older I got a little bit my own taste and flavor.

On his own style:

Today, I have on literally the Lululemon slacks we got, they fit so perfect, and I’m literally wearing them right now. I got on some blue and gold [duck boots], just like a really casual look. I like this Virginia Tech puffer.

On his siblings:

I have three sisters. My oldest [sibling] is 24, Justice. Then I have a 16-year-old, Lauren and then 11-year-old, Destiny. In the household when I was younger, I couldn’t really like you know, use my hands when I got mad so I usually had to either yell at them or just try to reason with them, but I guess it kind of helped out especially in trying to be a broadcaster because I use my words a lot more. 

Do his siblings play sports?

So my oldest [sibling] played volleyball. And then Lauren, she stopped playing basketball, I think like a year ago and then Destiny’s playing volleyball as well. They all have good height and good genes.

On his time at Oak Hill Academy:

I mean, obviously, the basketball was phenomenal. Traveling, it got me used to what I’m doing now in college. Besides that, the students they’re like, it’s a disciplinary school and not many people know that. And I got to meet a bunch of wonderful people, with just different backgrounds, and I got to really learn a lot because campus was really diverse. And I just got to learn, you know, like what kids came from and I learned not to judge a book by its cover by any means.

On his four-point play against Florida State:

[David] N’Guessan, he created a lot of tension just hitting a bunch of shots early on in the game. I think he drove, his ability to drive the ball is crazy, he’s really fast and then he drew in all of their defenders and he just kicked the ball out to me for three and I got fouled and converted.

On transitioning from being the star in high school to more of a role player in college:

I’m not gonna sit here like it isn’t [difficult], but definitely be having friends and people I’m close to that are in college and making friends and good connections with people while I’m in college, I understand that it takes time with certain people. With me it’s mainly not to get discouraged and really just keep a positive mindset about everything and just staying confident in myself.

What did he focus on in the offseason?

Shooting, for sure. I spent countless hours in the gym, just on the gun, honestly, that can improve your shooting for sure. In high school, I was a decent three-point shooter. I shot a lot of mid-range, but in college I’ve realized the floor is spaced and with tons of guards, they can drive and kick and if you can just shoot the ball, you’ll be fine.

On having a quicker release this year:

That’s something I really worked on. Defenders are obviously quicker and faster in college than high school, so it’s definitely something I needed to work on.

On watching guys hit so many shots like at Florida State:

Oh, that makes it so much easier for me to shoot the ball even more and it definitely gives me more confidence in my teammates and just gets me excited, especially when someone’s going 6-6 or [Hunter Cattoor] making nine threes. That’s phenomenal. 

On starting to stack wins after beating Florida State and Georgia Tech:

I feel like it was big for us as a team, especially beating them by as many points as we did. It definitely gives us confidence going into this next game.

On holding up despite a late comeback attempt from Georgia Tech:

At times, it was definitely turnovers. I know I had one. Just turnovers and then us just kind of not really scoring as much towards the end of the game but it’s nothing we can’t fix.

On playing with Justyn Mutts and Keve Aluma:

It’s great. Especially last year just me watching this much as I did and realizing how talented they were, especially when they can get the ball and defenders come, especially Justyn passing out of that defense. Now playing, I see how valuable that is, because I can space and if the defender comes, Justyn’s willing to pass or just him finishing that and Keve, their scoring ability inside is high.

On the pride of guys coming off the bench and making an impact:

Really all three of us. We just talked about being as aggressive as possible, because we don’t know how long we’re necessarily going to be out there at times. Definitely the coaches preach on us just to be effective. No matter what it is, getting a steal or a rebound, finishing a play or hitting a shot. Just coming off the bench being ready and being aggressive.

On what he likes to do off the court:

I have a girlfriend. Yeah, I fell in love. Coach Young doesn’t really like that but, when she’s not with me, we’re usually on the phone, very often. I’m usually on the phone with my family or just sitting there watching movies or shopping.

On the team’s chemistry:

Oh yeah, it’s great. There’s not necessarily any cliques. Me playing basketball for as long as I have, like I’ve realized the difference between this team, last year’s team, and team’s I’ve played with in the past. This team, like everybody’s cool. It doesn’t seem like anybody has too big of an ego either.

On his favorite ACC arena:

I love playing at home, I’m not going to lie. I like the fans a lot. When I’m at home shooting the ball, I feel like I can’t miss at home. 

On the nine o’clock tip-offs:

I like playing basketball. So as long as I can hoop then I’m fine.

Mike Young

On Hunter Cattoor’s shooting performance against Florida State:

He was pretty good. I enjoy doing the show here after a couple of wins more than the other way around. Hunter Cattoor was phenomenal, as our team was. I thought our team played a really good ballgame. [Sean] Pedulla making four [threes] in the first half. Hunter making nine threes in the Leon County Civic Center against the Seminoles. We made 18 [threes] in that game. That was quite an afternoon for our basketball team.

On winning at Florida State for the first time since 1990:

It’s a hard place to win, but much more than that, they got pretty good players, and he’s had really good players for a long, long time. Their length and athleticism and quickness to the balls is quite fascinating to watch. But our guys did a great job of adhering to the scouting report. You can drive it now, but you’re not going to drive it to the rim and expect to get it on the rim. 

That thing’s going to come out of there like a rocket, but if you get to the rim, play off two feet, find the next available pass, drive that one, good things happen with the exception of a very few times we did just that and excellent passing. We had some timely shots. Storm Murphy got one down in the second half, we were taking on water. Darius Maddox got a huge one down right in front of our bench and got fouled on it. You make 18 threes and that will help you win a lot of games. Proud of our team. 

On the adjustments Florida State made at halftime after Virginia Tech led by eight:

They started a little bit differently, and we botched a couple of things. Didn’t have the start that we needed to have. But we righted the ship and played awfully well. I thought we played really good basketball in the last 15 minutes and down the stretch. They took another little stab at us. I think they cut it back to 11. But Cattoor makes yet another and that was kind of all she wrote for the Seminoles that afternoon.

On Aluma picking up his third foul:

I don’t know what we’re going to do. We got problems. We are one of the few teams in the league that has the luxury of – like Saturday, Pittsburgh has a huge kid in the post, [John] Hugley and he is hugely. One of few teams in the league that can guard a player like that with Mutts and or Aluma. Mutts is battling fouls. Keve’s battling fouls. David [N’Guessan] can’t guard [Naheem] McCloud or [Tanor Ngom]. But David did a very nice job on Matthew Cleveland, a highly-touted freshman for Florida State, number 35.

John Butler, a 7-4 man. To watch them warm up is like goodness gracious. I cut short my time on the floor before the game. They waltz out four seven footers and all four of them can play. That’s humbling and I didn’t feel real good about that. But again, back to back to our team. Our team played an awfully fine ballgame. 

Does he ever get a feel during shootaround that his team will have a good day shooting?

No. I stopped trying to gauge our team a long time ago. You know, I just expect them to be ready to go. I enjoyed talking to Michael Devoe last night from Georgia Tech, Jordan Usher. Those guys have been around the league for a while and you get to know them and admire them and check in on them. But some of the finest kids in our league are from Florida State. They got great people. You know, sitting out there the other day here comes up for seven footers and so help me goodness.

I watched for 5-10 minutes and I don’t think any of them missed a shot, just holy cow. But I do think we’re gonna have those contested and those shooting numbers are going to go down. I’ve seen teams shoot the fire out of it in pregame and can’t make a shot to save their lives when the ball goes in the air and the other way around. So I don’t put any stock at all in that kind of thing. 

On the assistant coaches doing a good job with the scout against Florida State:

Spot on every night. I was talking to Margaret about it last night, two nights ago. It’s fascinating. It is the amount of work. You know for instance, Kevin [Giltner] and Ace [Custis] have had Pittsburgh, of course that’s back-to-back. Matt [Olinger] and Christian [Webster] have Syracuse next Saturday and those preparations have begun. I don’t look at anything Syracuse-related until after the Monday Pittsburgh game. Each game has two coaches that have those scouts and they try to space those out because it is time consuming.

There’s a lot that goes into it. But I’m fascinated with all the information that we get to them. Mike Burnop, a six foot, 195-pounder, strong right hand, can really shoot it, gotta make him dribble to his shot. But knowing his number and knowing his game is a big deal. And how our team does that. Now, it’s one thing to do it in the scouting report. It’s one thing to guard our scout team in practice. Now, you’re guarding that opposition and those guys are moving at 100 miles an hour and they’re 6’7,” 6’8,” 6’9” and can run like the wind. Our teams have always done an unbelievable job in that regard and take a great deal of pride in it. 

On the inbounds alley-oop to Justyn Mutts against Georgia Tech:

Ran that in 2015 to a young man named Justin Gordon from Charlotte, North Carolina that could jump over the backboard. In our preparation for Georgia Tech, saw something that looked eerily similar to the defense that we faced that particular night. I get hesitant, again I go back to our scouting. We got so much on them and I don’t want to overload them with something that will get us a basket, but the more I thought about it as I walked over to Cassell shoot around at 12:30 yesterday. You know what the heck?

They executed it exactly right. Storm made a great play. Nahiem [Alleyne] got to the backside corner which holds on to Usher. Justyn jumped through the ceiling and ran that thing home. Those things look awfully good when they work, they don’t look so good when they don’t work and I’ve had some of those too. I’m most concerned about the ball going over top of Justyn’s head, and here goes Georgia Tech on a two-on-one break and you look like a clown. But that one worked out well and good players making good plays. Plays don’t mean anything, if you don’t have the players that can execute them and make them make them work. 

On Mutts getting going in the second half:

He’s a special man. How cool was it to have two kids eclipse the 1000-point mark in the same game? I didn’t hear the announcement for Justyn, I knew he was four points shy. I did hear the announcement of Keve’s 1000 point. He came over and he kind of made eye contact. He had his eyes wide open. He said, ‘Coach, I never saw that coming.’ 

I said, ‘Keve, I’ve been a part of every practice you’ve been a part of, every game you’ve been a part of and never in a million years did I think you were going to score 1000 points in your time in college.’ But a tribute to both of them and their work and that’s a milestone, man. That’s a very impressive accomplishment for any college player to score 1000 points.

 

On only having two turnovers in the first half of the Florida State game:

They all have heavy hands and their physical on the ball and always swiping at it. And you might get fouled 25 times and they’re going to call three of them. So your sureness with the ball, toughness with the ball is essential. We did that. We got a little squirrely in the second half and kicked it eight times which is bad. But I think we had either 14 assists and 10 turnovers or 16 assists and 10 turnovers and to do that on the road, to do that against a team like Florida State is a real positive step for Virginia Tech basketball.

On Michael Devoe’s performance: 

I thought Hunter did a heck of a job on him. He got his first three down. I think Hunter was a little surprised he shot it from where he shot it. He’ll shoot that thing from the Virginia Tech logo as we saw on at least two occasions, maybe three. But you can’t speed him up. He’s gonna play at the pace that he’s comfortable with. He’s got all the tricks, middle of the lane jump shot or ball fake shot fakes. Step away from you. He had a heck of a night.

It’s hard for some to believe you know, guy clips you for 30 and you think you did all in all a pretty good job on him. I did. We kept him in front. He got away from us on a couple. We missed a switch between Hunter and Storm, got a three down. He only shot 22% coming into the game in ACC play. Of course he tattoos us for five but you know, good to get out there with a [15-point] win. We’ll take those any day of the week. 

On Jordan Usher playing with three fouls for a lot of the game:

I’ll tell you what now, that’s playing with fire and I think so much of Josh Pastner at Georgia Tech. I’ve never done that. I’ll play you with two. And we’ll do it again Saturday in Pittsburgh if the situation dictates that, but I almost fell out of my chair when Usher came back on to the floor in the first half with three and then he picked up his fourth I think at about the 16,15-minute mark of the second half. And Josh stuck right in there with him.

Now I think Josh’s thinking was, ‘we’re on the brink and I’ve got a guy. If we’re gonna win the game, if we’re gonna get back in this game, I’ve got to do it with my best players.’ And then you know, Usher’s a kid that can get you for 16 points and 12 rebounds and it really hurt you. I thought Justyn Mutts, I thought our team did a really good job on Usher, who’s a really fine player. 

On getting to the free throw line a lot against Georgia Tech:

They’ve been a sore spot. We’ve got to get to the line more, we did last night. We continue to talk about it and other than Cattoor, we don’t have a physical driver. I think Aluma gets fouled more than is called. I think Mutts gets fouled more than is called, but neither is just a smash mouth guy around the rim. 

They’re not finesse guys, but Aluma wants to catch face and drive it, which is very effective. Don’t get me wrong. But last night for instance, we made more foul shots than Georgia Tech took, that’s a big statistic. Unfortunately, all too often this year our opponent is making sometimes twice as many, taking twice as many foul shots as we’re taking. That’s not a good recipe.

On finishing with 36 points in the paint:

Every game is so different. Florida State again, I go back to that length and their physicality around the basket. Their fives are physical. John Butler, Wyatt Wilkes, 31 for them, are not physical people, but they kind of dictate where you’re going to play and how you’re going to beat them. Clemson beat them last night at Clemson. I’ll be interested to see that game and where they’re scoring came from. But you know, we take nothing away from our team. Our boys played a really good ball game on Saturday. 

On the defense in the second half:

Connected. Tough on the ball. Took away all their back cut actions which is important to them. We took those cuts on the chest and battled. Got a number of deflections when I get a fingertip on the ball just to disrupt the timing of that play. Rebounded well. I think we out-rebounded Georgia Tech by 10, which is positive. Want to take all those ingredients, all those things I just mentioned to Pittsburgh on Saturday and replicate that effort up there this weekend.

On Storm Murphy’s performance against Georgia Tech:

Somebody made the comment in the office today that the start and his energy really got us up and running. Three big shots to start the game. Aluma had a good start. Didn’t have quite the start defensively that I had hoped, not bad. But I thought Storm may have had his best game in a Hokie uniform.

On Pittsburgh:

Strength and size across the board. [John] Hugley in the post is just a bear of a man. Great hands. Does the majority of his work around the basket. He can step out and make a 15-foot jump shot. Guards are big. [Mouhamadou] Gueye, transfer from somewhere. 6’9,” really athletic four man. A Pittsburgh team that doesn’t shoot it great, but they really chase offensive rebounds. Predominantly man-to-man. We’ll play some zone. We’ll see some zone on Saturday. 

Their team, another team in this league, that can beat anyone. They did not play great at Clemson on Saturday. Last night Wake Forest really shot the fire out of the basketball and got them. Hey, listen, we got an opportunity to go up there and take another step forward. It’s going to be difficult. It’s going to be a real challenge for us, but a challenge we’re looking forward to and we had a good day of preparation today. We got tomorrow. We’ll have most of the day Saturday, seven o’clock game day. And we’ll have them ready to go. 

On Pittsburgh’s loss to Wake Forest on Wednesday night:

One of those games. Wake Forest’s Dallas Walton, the seven-foot post player, was three-for-three from three. Just one of those games. When every ball that goes in the air is going into a basket [for Wake Forest]. Pittsburgh got on their heels a little bit and couldn’t recover. Yeah, he almost averages a double double so he’s gonna give you some issues. 

On Pittsburgh forward John Hugley:

He is a man. I’m legitimately concerned he can foul us all out. He’s that massive and powerful. He’s like a 6’9” Shaquille O’Neal. As I mentioned earlier, we do have the luxury. We’ll start with Keve on him. We’re going to have to offer some help by way of doubling him as it goes into the post and some other things. 

How we’re going to treat him will be quite unique to anything that I’ve ever done, but every game presents issues that you’ve got to deal with and that’s a part of coaching. You’ve got to put your team in the best position possible to win the game and that’s what we’ll do. 

On playing Pittsburgh back-to-back:

I’ve done it before in my career. It’s a snow day and this game gets pushed back and you play Saturday, Monday. I think it’ll give us the opportunity to get them out of the building Sunday, a little bit quicker. We’ll dust some things off. We’ll watch it thoroughly with our team. So I don’t I don’t have a problem with it. I think it’s going to be fine. I look forward to it. And then we’ve got essentially a week off before we [Syracuse], but I think it’ll be good for our team. 

On the crowd against Georgia Tech:

The crowd was awesome. Cassell Guard. Those guys and ladies are just, they’re special and they make that up. A great home court. And anybody, for crying out loud, to come out at night at a 9 p.m. tip off, that’s quite the undertaking and we are certainly appreciative of their efforts and being there to support our team.