Tech Talk Live Notes: Mike Young Looks Ahead To Pitt

On Thursday night, Virginia Tech basketball head coach Mike Young joined Zach Mackey and Mike Burnop on Tech Talk Live at McClain’s at First & Main. They discussed the win against Notre Dame, the loss at Georgia Tech and Saturday’s home contest in Cassell Coliseum vs. Pitt.

Mike Young

How was the first road victory against Notre Dame?

It’s not that hard to play better basketball. We were good, we weren’t great. I thought we were really good offensively and had the ball in good spots. Grant Basile was terrific, as were others. We’ve done such a good job. We went back and looked at it Nate Laszewski, number 14, who’s been there a long time, senior, had not scored 10 total points on our team in three games. He got loose for 33.

Hunter Cattoor did a fabulous job, our team did a fabulous job, on Dane Goodwin, who I thought was interesting. Dane Goodwin’s a very good player. Goodwin had 25 at Duke on Saturday, so great work on Goodwin. Always good to beat the Fighting Irish and it was good to see Mike Brey, a dear friend, a man that I think the world of, has been awfully kind to me. He’s obviously wrapping up his time in South Bend, it was good to have a chance to visit with him.

Grant Basile had 33 points, that was amazing. But it was so hard to get stops, wasn’t it?

Brey would concur. Both teams have talented offensive people. Good passing teams, they don’t turn the ball over. We don’t turn the ball over. They’ve got Laszewski, Trey Wertz, Goodwin, Cormac Ryan’s a really good shooter. We’ve got a number of kids that can put the ball in the basket. I thought our second half was better than our first, but we hit those patches, we’re hitting those patches where we have to do a better job of keeping the ball in front of us.

We have to do a better job of rebounding the first miss, and our transition defense has to come on. Notre Dame really wants to come at you in transition, they pass the ball all over the place. Here we are, five regular season games left, and it’s still something we work on every day. It’s such a critical part of any of our defenses. All of us, as coaches, we have to continue to shore that up.

You put together a Hokie stone to present to Coach Brey:

John Ballein brought that to us. We did want to recognize Mike in some way. Whit Babcock, Coach [Frank] Beamer, there were a lot of people that were part of that. We all think the world of Mike. You talk about a great ambassador for college basketball, for Notre Dame, just a good person. One of those guys who, if you hear somebody say they don’t like Mike Brey, that guy needs to check himself out. Mike Brey is as good as they come and has done a lot for the Atlantic Coast Conference, has done a lot for college basketball.

As I said, to recognize him, and he was appreciative, and to compete against him again was a pleasure. I think he’s going to keep coaching, I don’t think he’s done. He’s 63, he’s in good health, he feels good, he’s got great energy. If that’s what he wants to do, I hope he has an opportunity. I’m sure he’ll have several opportunities. He’s a really good coach.

What were the difficulties you faced against Georgia Tech’s defense?

All of us, we want to know what we’re looking at, and I could have, should have, done a better job with our team. Goodness gracious, [Josh Pastner is] going to play multiple different zones, he came out and faceguarded Basile, Cattoor, and [Sean] Pedulla. He was playing a person at the top of the key and one in the paint, which is easy to navigate, easy to get people where they need to be. We couldn’t get anything the bottom of the basket and got outside of ourselves a little bit with our ball handling.

We still finished with 19 assists, 10 turnovers which is good enough, but those switching defenses, if you’re not exactly where you need to be offensively, can be disruptive, and that was more disruptive. We’ve seen the same defense the five previous times for however many times we played them, played them once last year, twice the year before when they won the ACC. We’ve had the ball in great places and got great shot after a great shot. Last night, we weren’t as good as we needed to be, bottom line.

You scored 44 points in the paint and dominated. But Georgia Tech had 26 free throws, you had 8. Did that stick out in the stat sheet?

It did. Historically, this particular Virginia Tech team, we don’t get fouled enough. That’s on me, that’s on us. We just haven’t gotten to the foul line. We shot two foul shots at Virginia, we came back at home and we shot in the 20s, which was good. Do they miss some? Yeah, they miss some, but I have never walked out of an arena thinking that those officials missed a number of calls and we should have gotten to the foul line. I just don’t feel that way. That just hasn’t been a real strong suit with this team for whatever reason.

Were you happy with the energy level of your guys? They seemed to have a sense of urgency in the second half:

That’s got to be prevalent throughout. I thought we fought like dogs for the better part of the second half. They’re aware of it, it’s something that we talked about again today. It hasn’t been an issue with this team. That has to be a given, that has to be your calling card night in and night out.

You elected to move Justyn Mutts to the three and went bigger with Lynn Kidd:

I told you after the game and I am not being critical of MJ Collins. MJ Collins is terrific, and what he has played through, has not missed a game I don’t think, with that thing on his face and a broken nose. I thought he had a freshman day. Didn’t have the look about him and missed some assignments defensively. That kid’s going to be a great player, but considering all of that, I thought our best lineup may be, and I don’t like it…

Basile can space the floor, obviously, Lynn Kidd has had a good year for us, a very good year for us, but the ball handling, the passing and the spacing, and Basile has become an invaluable piece force around the basket. But I went that direction just trying to find something, and I thought pretty good results, all-in-all.

I went back with MJ, that kid is going to give you everything he’s got every night, and he continued to do so. He got a three down there down the stretch. Just throwing things at the wall trying to find something that we can connect with and get something going, a lineup that we could continue to see a little bit more of as we go along.

MJ Collins played well at Notre Dame, had 12 points in that game:

That’s the life of a freshman, but that life as a sophomore is a different animal. Every minute that kid gobbles up, and he’s brilliant, I mean, he’s really a smart basketball player. And he’s seen it all, he’s playing from 30-33 minutes a game, and that’s going to pay big dividends for us as we move along. Kid’s going to be a great player, a really, really good player for us.

What are some of the challenges of a road game?

Well, the obvious – you’re on somebody else’s floor. Some are harder, I tell you what, I would not want to bring a team in the Cassell Coliseum. That’s hard. That’s unnerving. Student section right beside your bench. Notre Dame is kind of sterile, not a huge crowd, an older crowd. You’re away from home, obviously, that is just hard. It’s hard at any level, it’s hard at the high school level, it’s hard at the Division III level to go on the road and win, but you have to do that if you expect to have a great year and do really cool things.

We’ve had our shots too. We had our shot at Clemson, we had our shot at Wake Forest, one possession games. But you have to finish those games and find a way to win. Then you have to take care of things at home. I’ll never forget as long as I live, when we celebrated the 1973 NIT championship team. We had those guys come down on the floor, Coach [Don] DeVoe was with us, I asked him if he had anything he wanted to share. He said, “Yeah, win all of your home games,” and that’s a big deal. We’ve done a great job of that, we’ve kicked three this year, which is infuriating. You have to win at home, you have to find a way to steal five or six on the road. We haven’t done that.

Georgia Tech runs a lot of Princeton offense. For the most part, you guys did a pretty good job with that:

Didn’t give up a back cut. We gave up seven total points in transition, which is okay. Talk about our first three steps, the technique and everything that goes into it. Your first three steps from the offensive end and the defensive end are of critical importance. We’ll have the same thing on Saturday against Pittsburgh. Getting to the defensive end and getting your defense set, getting a body on a body, critical against Notre Dame, critical last night against Georgia Tech, it is every night. You cannot allow teams to score in transition, giving up layups, or made rhythm threes.

We got caught asleep at the wheel once early and I think number zero [Lance Terry] hit one across from our bench, maybe it was Deebo Coleman. But from that point on, we were quite good. We did not give up a back cut. We’re guarding your stuff, we’re guarding your stuff very well. Now, that last 15 seconds of that shot clock, to keep the ball in front of you and fight through that possession, get a shot contested and finish with a rebound, it all goes hand-in-hand. There are a lot of things that go into it that you have to execute at a higher level, especially in the ACC.

Grant Basile is fifth in all of college basketball in scoring over the last 10 games. How about his improvement throughout the season?

I think you’re going to see that as we continue to go along with kids that transfer, especially big kids, and point guards, those guys meshing with what is already here. Grant Basile is a really good basketball player, Grant Basile’s had a very good year for us. But I think we’ve seen the lights come on even brighter for that kid and finding his spots. He’s putting the ball in the hole at a high level. I think he scored our first nine points last night.

Very comfortable. He’s the best, he came by the office today, we were talking about a couple of things. He’s a great teammate. He said, “Coach, do you think I’m shooting too much?” I said, “Heck no, son, I think you should be shooting more.” I just have that kind of confidence in him. Our team has that kind of confidence in him. He puts his looks in and he works at it and is doing really, really well.

Basile had seven rebounds, a couple blocked shots. His defense has continued to evolve:

He’s gotten a lot better. He’s still has some ball screen coverages that we’re still working on. But I can tell you this: nobody is going to work as hard as he does. There’s nobody that has the ‘want to’ that he does. He’s a really good athlete in some regards, and his athleticism has to continue to come on here as he moves along as a basketball player for us and beyond, to take another jump. How can you not be just a complete fan of what he has put together here over the last couple of weeks? He’s playing great ball.

How about the fans Basile had at Notre Dame?

It was a good time to rob a house in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. I’ve been to Pewaukee, Wisconsin, it’s a beautiful community right outside of Milwaukee. His mom and dad were there and their families. He is a great person to coach and I’m proud of him. I’ve had a terrific time coaching him, he’s a really good one.

Jon Scheyer said after the Duke game that Virginia Tech is one of the hardest teams to prepare for on a shortened schedule:

I’ve never played myself, so I’m not sure I can [answer]. I can certainly see Jon’s point. Here’s the short answer. I forget who we had on Saturday. I don’t care who you’re playing. I’ve been in leagues where you play Thursday and Saturday, that one-day prep is awful no matter who you’re playing. So much to get through on Sunday, you don’t want to wear them out, you’re trying to get personnel and tendencies. Here’s their actions, here’s what we’re looking at, here’s how we want to guard it. That’s really hard.

Now you take a team, for instance, like Duke, who doesn’t play a lot of zone. We don’t see a lot of zone unless it’s Syracuse or Georgia Tech, that’s really about all they do. You take, Duke who wants to play you primarily man, we’re going to put you in a bunch of actions that will make you uncomfortable, you have to navigate some things now. Coach [Mike] Krzyzewski and Jon [Scheyer] both would try to switch a lot of things, but those guys are doing it with great players. Now, don’t get me wrong, they’re doing it with the majority of the roster being freshmen. Well, that’s even more difficult. So, the one-day [prep days] are really hard on all of us. But nice of Jon to make that comment.

What were your thoughts on the missed call in the Duke-Virginia game?

It’s unfortunate. They missed it. Now, I know the three men on that game. I’ve had those three men on our games. They’re terrific. There’s one guy on that game that has called in the last five Final Fours. He has seen a lot of plays. But that’s a big game for Duke, it’s a big game for UVa. They’re all huge games. To play as well as they did and have that happened to them, those circumstances, would be really hard for any of us to swallow.

To reverse the call… A foul was called and they reversed it at the monitor. To lose the game that way and to go to overtime is really difficult. I thought Jon handled himself incredibly well. That’s about all I have to say about that. It’s unfortunate. UVa played their tails off and so did Duke, and for Duke to lose it in the fashion that they did was unfortunate for those guys.

How does process for grading referees work?

I don’t know and I really don’t want to take the time to do that. We have a commissioner of officials, Brian Kersey, he called this league for many, many years. I know Brian very, very well. It is very rare for me to call him. I may call him, I may send him three plays. We talked about it a minute ago, I’ve coached over 600 odd games, I have never left a game thinking that I lost because of the officials. I haven’t. The ones we get here, these are the best that college basketball has to offer.

You think about that crew last night with Ted Valentine and John Gaffney, I mean, those guys are big league officials. I’m going to ask them about some plays during the course of the game. I’m not going to show them up. But the good ones are going to explain to you what they saw and you move it along. There’s too much going on. There are too many plays. You have to get back to your team and take care of that.

What do the next couple of days look like ahead of a matchup with Pitt?

Hard to do a lot with them on Thursday. We brought them down with David Jackson. We got treatment at one or two, we practiced at three, we watched quite a bit of film and began our preparations for Pittsburgh. First and only time that we play the Panthers during the regular season. We had them down for two-and-a-half, three hours and tomorrow is a heavy day with continuing those preparation for Saturday’s game.

What bugs you the most as a head coach: bad defense or inconsistencies?

I don’t like either one of those. Turnovers will always be… I just don’t think in any sport you can turn the ball over and expect to win consistently. All of the above. Turnovers, not getting down and getting with people defensively, not rebounding the ball at a high level from all five guys, allowing a good shooter to catch it and shoot it, you have to make that guy put it on the floor. There’s a lot of things that bother me, those are a couple.

There are very few coaches who come out and talk to people during pregame. Has it always been that way?

I can’t tell you, the nervous energy, the music, I can’t stand sitting back there, and I’m nervous as I can be, I’ve got all these thoughts in my head about how we’re guarding this, how we’re guarding that, matchups and so on and so forth. I’ve always gone out and seen the other staff, visited with players on the other team that I’ve gotten to know through the years. Maybe we recruited them, so how is the family doing? That sort of thing.

I typically go back in with an hour on the game clock. Team goes out on the floor at 45. They come back in at 33. Then I’m there. I’ve always done it that way. I can’t imagine sitting out there. We typically bring everybody in, staff and players are in the building an hour-and-a-half before game time. To do it any other way, sit back there until two minutes, three minutes on the game clock before the start would drive me crazy.

Sean Pedulla played 40 minutes against Notre Dame and Georgia Tech, Hunter Cattoor played 40 minutes against Georgia Tech. It must make it difficult to keep them out there for the entire game:

It’s difficult, I’m doing the best I can with it. Darius Maddox, his situation is improving, family matter is getting better and better. Rodney Rice’s injury… We’re a bit thin in the frontcourt, as we were last year. I’ve gone years and not had anybody hurt. I mean, I had a great team in 2019. We had a great year last year, and we kept everybody healthy and it’s a big deal.

Now, I could have gotten Pedulla off the floor and played Cattoor at the point against Notre Dame, they’re not going to press, I could have done that last night with Georgia Tech. I need to, but both those kids are so critical to everything that we do. It certainly comes at a cost.

Pitt’s had a tremendous season so far. The Panthers are currently first in the ACC:

They’ve had a tremendous season. Jeff Capel has done a really good job with them. We looked at it today, I think of the seven players that are playing the most minutes, five are new. They are one of the oldest teams in the country. Point guard from Colgate, Nelly Cummings, has really added another dimension to their team. He’s really a good basketball player. Blake Hinson has been to multiple schools, playing very well.

The returner is [Jamarius] Burton, he’s just a haus. This Pittsburgh team reminds me of the old Pittsburgh teams from Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon. Big, strong and physical people. They’ve got a kid in post, number 33, Federiko Federiko, that’s literally his first and last name, that doesn’t score very well. He can make a layup, but man, he is a difference maker with his ability to be disruptive in a post. He is excellent, has great feet, his ball screens, and he’ll come up with an angle that you don’t see a whole lot, and he’ll turn it real quick, and Burton and Cummings and number three, Greg Elliott, they really shoot the ball well. They have a good ball team. They’re having a really good year. We’ll see more tomorrow. They’re playing very, very well together.

Tell me more about Blake Hinson:

He shoots the fire out of it, he’s got a quick trigger. This team reminds me a lot of last year’s Notre Dame team, this Pittsburgh team is bigger and more physical. But the majority of Hinson’s damage is done on the perimeter. You would think with a body like his that he would do some work around the basket, but he really doesn’t do that. He is an exceptional mover when the ball is in movement. There goes the ball down the middle of the lane or on this pass into the post and he’s cutting behind stuff. If you aren’t dialed in, aren’t responsible, aren’t moving as he moves, he’s shooting the basketball at a very high level and he’s a really good player.

I forget where he started. We looked at it earlier today, he was at Mississippi State and then went to Iowa State for two years and sat out both years as a medical redshirt. I don’t know what was going on but they are old, they have seen a lot of plays and they’re playing very well together.

Pitt was picked to finish 14th by the media, but as coaches, do you know that Pitt went out and got some guys?

I don’t pay any attention to it at all. I don’t. Kids are going to come into their own over the summer. MJ Collins, for instance has had a really good freshman year, he’s going to be even better a year from now. With all the upheaval with the transfer portal and so on, you just don’t know. I worry about my team. Every day is an opportunity to improve. I think those preseason rankings are for the birds. I don’t pay any attention to that. That’s just how I’ve gone about it.

How about your redshirt freshmen?

They’re doing well. Those big kids take some time. Patrick Wessler, proud of his work habits, he’s gotten bigger and stronger, his core strength has improved, his foot speed and quickness has improved. He’s a skilled kid, great hands, can really shoot the ball, and one that we think we’re going to be able to count on as time moves along.

Darren Buchanan Jr. is a man. I think Darren Buchanan has picked up 25 pounds, he looks like a statue. Another person with good work habits and working on his ball handling, working on his perimeter shot, but he’ll be a guy that makes his living on the offensive glass, tenacious defender. Going to be a good one, both of them are going to be good player for us. You sit those guys out for a reason. We think those two kids we’re going to be able to count on for years to come.