On Thursday, Virginia Tech men’s basketball guard Hunter Cattoor and head coach Mike Young joined Zach Mackey and Mike Burnop on Tech Talk Live. They discussed the first nine games of the 2023-24 season, including the most recent win over Louisville, and Saturday’s game vs. Valparaiso (Noon ET, CW).
Hunter Cattoor
You became the all-time 3-point leader in Virginia Tech basketball history against Boise State in Orlando. What was that like?
Yeah, crazy to do it back home in front of family and friends, people, high school coaches that have had a big part in that. Obviously, big thanks goes to the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I’ve gone a lot through this past year. It was tough for me to kind of go through that. But a lot goes into it. You think about, “Oh, he’s a great shooter,” but there’s so many things going into it, players around you, coaches, people trusting you. I have a part of it, but a lot of people have a small part in it.
You did it in less games than A.D. Vassallo and some of those other guys. Did any of those guys happen to reach out to you? Have you met some of those guys like A.D., Malcolm Delaney, Justin Bibbs?
I’ve talked to Malcolm Delaney, the other two I haven’t, but I’m sure they’re great guys. I’ve heard much about them. But there’s legends around here, so to be in a conversation with them is pretty cool.
If you weren’t going to be able to do it in Cassell Coliseum, I bet the next best spot was to do it back in your hometown. Was it hard to get enough tickets in Orlando for everybody?
Yeah, it was a little bit of a struggle. Our first game was Thanksgiving night, so it was not as many people, but probably on average, each game was between 15 and 20 people. So it was kind of cool. I’ve had people come to our Florida State games and Miami games, but this was kind of right in the backyard so it’s a little bit easier for them to get to.
Growing up down there, what was it like for you? You’re close to that facility in Orlando, you said you went to many events over there. You played all kinds of sports over there. Those facilities are absolutely amazing.
Yeah, it’s crazy. I grew up since third grade playing in basketball tournaments there at Disney. So I’ve played on that same court before when I was a lot smaller and weighed a lot less when I was on that court last time. But yeah, I even played soccer there. So they have everything — soccer, football, baseball. You name it, they probably have it. To kind of have that in the backyard as like an AAU team is pretty cool.
Were you always a guy that had so much distance to your shot? Always a 3-point type of guy?
The thing I always wanted to do as a basketball player was to be the hardest worker on the court no matter what it was. Offense or defense aside, be the one that after the game someone’s gonna be like, “That kid plays hard.” I feel like I always kind of had that brand to my game, but obviously the 3-point shot was always there, especially growing up. You see Steph Curry now, that was a big part of coming up and you see him shooting the three but you’re like, “Alright, I want to do that too. It’s pretty cool.” And sometimes being 6-3, not the most athletic, you don’t get to dunk it every time, so being able to shoot threes was the next best option. So kind of I would say I was always a 3-point shooter growing up.
Bishop Moore High School. Did you have a bunch of people from there come over and watch the games down in Disney a few weeks back? And how big of a school was that?
I think my class was 400 people so about 1,200, 1,300 kids at the school. Two or all three of my coaches from high school were at the games at different stages. I had some friends… I didn’t even know he was coming to the game, he was one of the ball boys or he was sweeping the floor. I saw him right before the national anthem. He came out and we hugged and said what’s up, so it was pretty cool. But yeah, it was super cool to kind of see different parts of my life, different people there from friends, the trainers, the people that worked me out and things like that, that have always kind of supported me through everything.
It’s been a long road. Committed to Wofford, came to Virginia Tech and now you’re the program’s all-time 3-point record holder. Do you ever think back about how far you’ve come?
Yeah, I mean, if you would have told me I would break the record for a school in the ACC, I wouldn’t have believed you. If you would have ever said Virginia Tech, I would have been like, “Who’s Virginia Tech?” It’s super cool. It’s one of those things that was it was a full-circle moment for me doing it back at a place where I played as a kid and kind of looked up to always wanting to play Division I basketball and to kind of have that record now and my name will forever be there, it’s pretty cool.
Did you get a chuckle when Coach Young was talking about it? Somebody asked him about you and your work ethic and all that stuff. He said, “I was just hoping he would be able to get on the court.”
He’s gonna keep it real always with me. We were in the hallway after the game and I had the game ball and he was like, “What are you doing with the game ball?” And I didn’t want to be that guy where I was like, “I just broke the record,” but I was like, “I broke the record, Coach,” and then he just slapped me on the chest. So it was a pretty cool moment. But that’s who Coach Young is, we have a great relationship. I am very grateful.
One of my favorite ones too that Coach always says is Hunter Cattoor wasn’t a four-star or five-star prospect; he said you might have owed some stars coming out of high school.
I don’t know if I had any stars. I think I got three stars once I committed but before that, I don’t think I had any stars.
He said you got to install a play. Have you run the play? Has it worked? Tell us about it.
Yeah, we have, it’s a play we run pretty often. You probably see it on Twitter a bunch. It’s an action that we run where I kind of come down a double screen from the middle of the lane and get a handoff. Made a lot of threes off of it. And we have different kinds of variations from that one play. It’s been very effective for us the past five years. The name of it is Lubbock. There’s different types of Lubbock, but the main part of it is Lubbock.
You’re a senior, you’ve been around this team for a couple years now. What’s your take on this team, this version of Virginia Tech basketball this year?
Being here for five years and seeing how college basketball has changed, especially with the transfer portal and NIL, it feels like every year there’s a new team you’re with, you think like half the roster is flipping, but I’m excited for this team. I feel like we’ve grown so much since our first game. We’ve grown so much since the preseason. And that’s what you kind of want in a team. You don’t want to reach your peak in November, December. You want to keep on a steady incline going into March and into tournament play. So I think we’re really getting better. We’re getting after it in practice. I think we have a good shot of making a good run in the ACC this year. Obviously, it helps starting 1-0 before it gets to the real thick of the schedule. But I’m really excited for our team and as long as we keep getting better and growing, I think we’ll be okay.
The physical play that you saw in Orlando against Florida Atlantic and then Auburn a few days later, that was a little different, wasn’t it?
Two tough teams. We didn’t help ourselves in that kind of starting off slow and that has been kind of a key point this week. Even against Louisville, we didn’t start the best. But you’ve got to start off games well, especially against good teams like Florida Atlantic and Auburn, even Louisville. You’ve got to start games off well and if you get behind, some teams aren’t gonna let you back in. Going against FAU and Auburn, both of the teams will probably make the tournament. You kind of get a good taste of where you are at as a team where you need to be better and things like that. So it’s good to have those games early on to have a test for you, what do you have to do better. Hopefully you want to win those games. We didn’t but we got to improve on it. You get to go and learn from it, and it’ll excel us into conference play.
I know you said you implemented some of the plays and that in your future, you want to be a college basketball coach. Is that something from the get-go you always knew you wanted to do?
Yeah, ever since I was a kid, I had a little whiteboard. You see the little coaches whiteboards where they got the court and everything on it. I think my mom got it for me and I used to draw plays on it all the time and I’d go to my older brother Bryce and be like, “Alright, if I drew this play, how would you guard it?” He’d mess up the play and guard it well, and I’d get all mad and erase it and try to find a different way. I’ve always kind of had a knack for the game on a different level in things like that. Obviously, working with Coach Young and our staff, they really let me be on the inside of a lot of things in film sessions and things like that. So I think it’s just grown over time.
Last year was kind of a tough year. You got hurt at Boston College. Less than a month before that, you found out about your dad. Kind of walk us how tough that was for you.
I found out about my dad being diagnosed with cancer in late November, early December. Tough time. Obviously, as a kid you hear the word cancer and you don’t really know what comes with it and things like that. It was just tough for me. It was like the first time in my life I was exposed to someone in my family with it. And then getting hurt in the Boston College game the day before we all get to go home for Christmas. I was going home in a sling going to doctor’s appointments. My dad was going to doctor’s appointments with the mask on, so it was kind of a chaotic Christmas last year.
But just going through it, he was a warrior. It kind of helped me go through what I was going through. I was like, “I broke my elbow, but this is nothing compared to what my dad’s going through.” I knew I was gonna be okay. The toughest part was just being away from home the whole time. But my dad wouldn’t want it any other way. He didn’t want me to worry about him. He wanted me to worry about basketball and Virginia Tech and my studies. It was a tough year getting through it. My family stuck together. I think I grew my faith during that time. And it’s all part of God’s plan. You never know what’s going to come and you never want to accept it when it happens, but at the end of the day, when you look back, you’re kind of grateful for the experiences and I think our family’s closer now after going through all that, so it really was worth it.
And he’s doing well?
He is doing well. He’s cancer free. Now he’s going through remission, feeling better. Just saw him, he was down in Orlando. He went to the Auburn game, so I’m excited. Hopefully our Christmas this year is a little bit better.
What was that stretch last year like when you were sidelined and had to watch from the bench?
It’s kind of like a kid in timeout where you kind of see your friends outside playing and you can’t play at all. It sucked because mentally, you want to be out there and you’re mentally engaged in the gameplan and practice, in the game, but physically, you just couldn’t do it. So it was rough. I was just trying to get better as soon as I could. And when I felt I was comfortable to go out there and play, I was ready to go.
You guys got off to a little bit of a slow start against Florida Atlantic and Auburn and again on Sunday with Louisville. The second half starts, you guys come out like guns on fire. What’s been said at halftime? What’s been the difference?
I think it was good coaching at halftime. You have a coach like Coach Young who’s gonna light a fire under you and you better do better in the second half. But honestly, it comes from our team. The coaches could only do so much from the pre-game to practice and things like that. But at the end of the day, we’re playing out there so I think that’s something with me being a fifth-year guy that I have to lead out on the court and make sure our guys are ready to play from the beginning. Like I just mentioned, there’s so many teams out there where the game’s 40 minutes and if you lack even five minutes in that game, that could cost you the game. So just being engaged for the full 40 minutes is really important.
What have you thought of the play of Lynn Kidd inside?
Yeah, I think it’s a must for us. He needs to have 15 to 20 points a game if we can. It just helps everything else spread out and when you have such an impactful player down there in the post. Even Mylyjael Poteat. When you can get the ball in the post and put pressure on the rim, whether that’s getting their bigs in foul trouble or people having a dig in or double team, it just opens everything else up on the court. I know we haven’t shot the three ball very well recently. But to have that where you could throw the ball in the post and know that he’s going to make it 70% of the time or whatever he’s shooting now, it’s really helped us, and he’s even rebounding the ball well for us.
How about MJ Collins? How important was that the other day against Louisville to have him step up?
I was super excited for him. I just knew he needed that first three to go down and his confidence would open up so as soon as he made his first three, I knew he was gonna have a big game. I see the work he puts in every day. We guard each other in practice so I know what type of player he is. And I know he was a little frustrated by his play because he knew he could do better and we all knew in the program that he’s a better player than what he’s been putting out there. So for him to kind of have that breakout game against Louisville, hopefully it keeps propelling him into these next couple of games and throughout the season.
When those shots aren’t going down and yourself or the team struggles shooting the ball, is there anything you do to try and get that confidence back?
I think the biggest thing for me that I’ve learned over the years of just kind of shooting the ball and going through slumps is not changing anything. I’ve put in the reps, I put in the practice. I know what I need to do to make shots. When I start thinking, I’ve gotta do this or fix this, my mind starts changing and I overreact to things. I think you just kind of get in the gym and you kind of shoot it out. You’ve gotta shoot out the slump, kind of go through your reps. Obviously, you can do little things from shooting, things like that to really kind of hone in on the fundamentals of shooting the ball.
But I think it’s just one of those things where it’s part of the game, you’re not going to make every shot. Obviously, you wish every game you have your best shooting game, but I think you just have to keep your confidence high. Don’t worry about it. We have a great shooting team. That’s the least of our worries right now. We kind of see it in practice where we’re hitting those shots that we’re missing in the game. And then after practice, guys are getting up shots. Before practice, guys are getting up shots. So at the end of the day it’s gonna crack up one time and we’re gonna go on a stretch where we’re hitting a bunch.
What’s your favorite and least favorite venue in the ACC to play in?
My least favorite is Boston College, just after last year. I don’t like that place, glad we don’t have to go there again. It’s also cold there, it’s like on the ice rink, so it’s tough. My favorite is Duke. Duke is always a fun environment. It’s tough to play there but it’s fun. And then I guess going back home either Miami or Florida State just because I got some family and friends who go to the game.
How about off the court? What do you like to do off the court?
Oh, I love to golf. I think everybody knows that now. That’s my passion. I just do basketball on the side. But no, I love to golf, and I love to cook chicken wings. Really nothing much to do outside of that, kind of very chill. I’d say whenever I have free time, I’d get out on the golf course and hit some balls. I think it’s just one of those things outside of basketball. It’s just such a mindless thing for me. Kind of get away from all the pressure and stress and kind of just go out there and enjoy the weather and the environment.
What about the chicken wings? What’s your flavor?
I have a whole recipe that I put in seasoning and things like that, but at the end of the day, I think it’s just kind of a buffalo mild type of thing, but I put them in the air fryer, I think the air fryer is the best thing ever invented.
Talk about your major, I know you’re already on your second degree.
So I started my grad degree last year because I didn’t know if I was coming back this year, so I put it on pause and I’m going for another undergrad in consumer studies. I’m going through that and taking classes.
Did we see that Storm Murphy was at one of the games? Do you keep in touch with some of those guys that played with you?
He was here for the Wofford game. So I talk with Storm, Keve Aluma and Grant Basile all the time. If I see a clip of them playing overseas, I’ll talk to them about how overseas life is, how’s live outside of college and things like that. But they have all been good about checking in on me and saying good game after watching on tv and things like that, so they’ve always been good dudes, basketball aside, just talking to them about how I am doing personally and things like that, so it’s been cool to stay in touch with them.
Mike Young
Has it been nice to get a little rest and be back home?
Yes. Could get used to it. We needed this time. We had Louisville, we gave them Monday off and we had a ball in their hands but did not practice formally. They did a bunch of individual stuff, ball handling, shooting that sort of thing. And then we’ve had two really good practices, tomorrow will be a good one. And then of course we’re in exam week so we’ll have next week broken up as well, get their legs under them and start turning our attention to what lies ahead.
It was funny. We had Hunter on and when he first sat down, he said, “I’m doing good. Good practice today. We’re gonna go after Valpo.” He’s speaking like a true coach already.
Don’t give him too much credit, Zach. Be careful. I know him better than you do. He’s been a big part of it. He’s been a real delight to coach. He’s one of those guys in business or whatever profession you might be in, you know exactly where he is. You know where he is mentally, physically, emotionally. He’s in a good spot and he’s going to do everything he can, everything in his tank to help you have a good practice, have a good shoot around prior to the Valpo game. And you know he’s going to give you everything he’s got when the thing goes in here. He’s an all-timer. A real treat for me to have had the pleasure of coaching him, I got a lot more to look forward to with him.
Explain something to me. Hunter has 275-plus 3-pointers. Fletcher Magee had 509 or something at Wofford, how in the world is that? Did he just come down the floor and just shoot behind the arc every time?
They’re different players. Both great players in their own right. People have asked me that before and I tell them all the time, Hunter does things that Fletcher couldn’t do, does things better than Fletch did. He’s a better ball handler, better defender. Fletcher wasn’t very good at all until his senior year. Better screener. But Fletch had an uncanny ability. You really have to see it to believe it. I saw every practice the kid participated in, every game he played in. He’s one of a kind in his ability to contort his body. I’m not exaggerating this point, Mike. He could catch the ball running 100 miles an hour away from the basket, catch the ball and turn really truly in the air and get his shoulder squared and let it go. He got fouled a lot on those 3-point shots. He was a remarkable young person, still playing professionally in Europe. Had a great career for us, as has Hunter.
You’ve got a number of really good shooters. What do you go through when someone like Hunter goes through a slump? How do you coach them through it? What do you tell them?
I got a lot of really good shooters. I need a lot of really good makers. I can get Z-man out there to shoot it, but I need someone who can put that thing in the hole. I thought about it. We were talking as a staff over the weekend, Monday. If that’s our biggest concern, I will continue to rest well. We aren’t shooting it great yet. Shot selection has something to do with that. I think we’re taking pretty good shots, but MJ Collins had a good ball game against Louisville. We need for him to continue to come on.
Tyler Nickel is a terrific shooter. He’s not shooting the ball great right now, he will. Sean Pedulla is a very good catch and shoot player, one dribble, pull-up player. Our shooting numbers are not where they were, talking about Fletcher McGee that last year at Wofford. I had five kids over 40% from three and we’ve approached that here with a couple of teams. We’re getting better defensively. We’re getting better in all phases. We’ll shoot it better. I know that.
How about Lynn Kidd? He’s just been so consistent scoring, shooting the ball extremely well. He’s playing at a very high level right now.
He’s a good low-block option to be able to throw it down on the block and expect something good to happen. He doesn’t need a lot of help. He’s aided by Hunter Cattoor and others and their ability or perceived ability to shoot it so they don’t help down into the post on him very much and he’s alone. You’re playing him one-on-one, that gets dicey. He’s put together a really good first nine ball games and Hunter said it best: We need that production from that frontline.
I come over and sit down with you guys. One of the first things I look at after the game when we go on the radio is what we get from that spot and I think Mylyjael had two the other night actually had three, had an and-one the old fashioned way. We’ve gotten anywhere from 20, 25, 26 from that spot, nine, 10, 12 rebounds, and that’s a big deal. Happiness for me is having the ability to throw it to a person and they could get an easier basket for you and consequently guys, something that some people take for granted or fail to mention is we are getting fouled more, we are getting fouled more because of the things down there and you’ll continue to see that as we move along.
How do you think your team responded in that Louisville game, an early ACC test just nine games in?
Fair. We got to come on. I’ve referenced an uptick, we need an uptick on both ends of the floor. Ballhandling has been good. It hasn’t been what we expect from our Virginia Tech team. Our defensive numbers have improved dramatically here of late but that’s got to continue to come on. Louisville is much better, they’re a lot better. I told our team after the game that I’m never going to get after you after winning. I don’t care who it is. Their guard play was good, Skyy Clark’s a good player, Mike James is a good player. Trey White is a good player. [Brandon] Huntley-Hatfield is a load in the post. So good to win that league opener, and you’ll take that into the Christmas break, but we’ve got three games here with Valpo, Vermont, who’s really good, and American. We’ve got some things we’ve got to shore up, we’ve got to make improvements upon and these last couple of practices have been a step in a positive direction.
What exactly do you mean by that? What specifically are you talking about?
Just better our ballhandling. Everything that we do, and I don’t want to sound like I know any more than anybody else… I think anytime that there’s a ballhandling blunder when we’re involved in an action and a ball is mishandled, a ball is not received properly… It sounds very elementary, but I say it once, I say a thousand times, passing and catching, passing and catching, stopping properly. Giving the ball to a teammate in a timely fashion on his outside hand, throwing away from the defender. Sounds like it’s easy, it’s not when you’re moving 100 miles an hour.
Defensively, we spend an inordinate amount of time on our transition defense when we’re transitioning from the offensive end, miss shot, whatever it might be, to the defensive end and getting set, getting your defense set and getting them in proper gaps to the wall, if you will, and then finishing that possession with a rebound. We have not rebounded great, we’ve rebounded a lot better over the last three or four games. That continues to be a source of concern. We can’t take our eyes off of it. I can go down to the special teams. We reference special teams as football references — punt, field goal, all that stuff. Out of bounds under, out of bounds under defense, side out of bounds, side out of bounds under. Those situations flip games. We want to be plus-six in all of our special teams work. And we typically are, we haven’t been there yet consistently. We’re not getting beat in that area. Which is okay, but we need more precision, we need better timing.
How good was it to see MJ Collins bounce back?
Oh boy, he was 0-for-November. He was in a dark place and that can happen in this game. Had so many that were down and out and then you’re thinking about it and you’re starting to guide it and not shoot it. It was a tough spot for him. But he continued to work at it. There’s no great secret. You have to continue to work and shoot until your arms fall off and revert back to the things that got you to this point and he did that and he got that first one down and I’m sure that rim began to look like a bathtub and he’s doing a couple more. It was good to see. Big game. To score 20 and play like MJ Collins and defended well, he had a very good ballgame.
Is it good to see Mekhi Long rebounding as well as he has, too?
He’s coming on, he’s playing faster, he’s playing like the Mekhi Long we expected to play all along here. He’s got a knack for the ball. He knows how to play. He’s a great person to play with and to coach. We’ve needed that emergence from him, and I expect him to be in the starting lineup on Saturday. I think he’s doing that much for our team.
What stands out to you when looking at this Valpo team?
They can really score the ball. Their best player is number 19, Isaiah Stafford. They’ve got a good post player, Cooper Schwieger, who’s a freshman but is 6-9, 210. Man, they play fast, holy cow. Made basket for Virginia Tech, the Hokies score and here they come right back up your backside, trying to get some quick shot selections. But they know how they want to play. They know who they are. They’ve been good defensively. I saw them play against Illinois, a very good Illinois team, and they were up comfortably at the half, Illinois came back. But man, they’re dynamic and guards get downhill and they share. They’ve got a pretty good outfit. We’re gonna have to be ready to go.
A guy that was game ready for many, many years that you know pretty well, Cliff Ellis. He’s retired, announced today at Coastal Carolina, 17 years. What are your memories of him?
Just a basketball coach. I will get a call from him every couple of months and it’d be something he saw on film that he wanted to talk about. “Are you still doing that? How do you get to it?” I have known him a long time and played him as an assistant when he was at Auburn, had the number one team in the country with a kid named Chris Porter. Played him when he was at Clemson and then the other guys won 750 some games, something like that. A great man. He’s just a great person. Heck of a basketball coach. 78 years young. I can tell you what I will not be doing when I’m 78 years old. I could very well be sitting back there with my friends drinking a beer, I can assure you that, but I will not be coaching basketball when I am 78, but I haven’t talked to him yet. I will probably call him tomorrow just to check in, congratulate him, invite him to Blacksburg — he’s been here many times — and have a nice visit with an old friend.
That Louisville team gave you a lot of pressure throughout the game. Your team only turned over the ball 10 times. It felt like you guys handled the basketball a little bit better. Do you feel that way?
I do. But … Louisville doesn’t apply a lot of pressure. We did have 19 assists I believe, which is good. We’re closer, but still a work in progress. And in that regard, sloppy basketball drives me insane. Cannot stand to watch our team be sloppy. We haven’t been sloppy. We’re just not as crisp as I think we should be nine games in.
What about Josh Pastner as the analyst on your Louisville game? And I guess Jim Boeheim is doing some color on some of the ACC games. Do you see that down the road?
I would love to see Boeheim in Blacksburg. He loved Blacksburg the same as I did Syracuse, New York. Those two guys do great work. I grew to really respect and admire both of them and got to know both of them. Funny story last year. We’re playing Syracuse at home and I said, “Where’s the old man? They said he was back there reading a book, go back there and talk to him.” I said, “I’m not going back there to talk to him.” And they said, “He would love it if you went back there.” And we’re 50 minutes before tip-off and the guy’s coached forever. He’s up on the table, sitting with a book in his hand. I won’t share with you exactly what he said to me. I asked him, I said, “What in the world are you doing?” And he said, “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m reading a book.”
We sat there and we talked until the team came in. And I had to go in and talk to my team and he went in to talk to the Orange. I think it’s great that we have former coaches doing the color. Some of these young guys trying to make a name for themselves, man, just slow down, buddy. And those two men have coached a lot of ball and they know what they’re looking at. They know what goes into the coaching portion of it, obviously. I think it’s great for the ACC Network, our league and it was great seeing Josh, I love Josh. I look forward to seeing Coach Boeheim sometime soon down the road.
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