Tech Talk Live Notes: Mike Young And Kristen Skiera

On Thursday, Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach Mike Young and lacrosse coach Kristen Skiera joined Zach Mackey and Mike Burnop on Tech Talk Live. Young’s team is back in action on Saturday at NC State (noon ET, CW) while Skiera & Co. open their season on Feb. 10 vs. VCU.

Mike Young

Quick turnaround for you guys. You played at Virginia on Wednesday and then get ready to leave and play NC State on the road this weekend. 

It’s a tough stretch, but it’s the season and what you come to expect. A Tuesday at home, back around on Saturday and then Monday. It’s the game and you have to prepare your team and play good basketball.

One of the big factors in the game against Virginia was Mylyjael Poteat, who played some big moments in the 2nd half, played 20 minutes, a career-high for him in a Virginia Tech uniform. What did you see out of Mylyjael?

He’s put together three straight really good games. He was good against Clemson and helped us big time with his work on PJ Hall in the post. I thought he did a really good job on Saturday against Norchad Omier against the Hurricanes and then again last night. He’s doing it night in and night out. Had a couple opportunities around the basket in the first half down there last night that we needed to get home. But pleased with his play. His screening, his ball screen defense has been really good. He’s got good feet for a big person, gets out, extends himself, not afraid of it. He’s got good hands and is tough on the ball. Guards don’t like it, they back out of it, pick it up which is what the hedge is supposed to do.

Robbie Beran had a nice game for you. Playing with foul trouble. 10 points, 6 rebounds, what did you think of Robbie’s performance?

Robbie played very well. He was good defensively. Going back and looking at it, he’s an old guy. He’s been around four years at Northwestern. He’s been a part of a really good program. He knows what it’s supposed to look like and is intent on doing the right things and helping our team, he’s the ultimate team guy. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to coach him. 

There were a couple times last night, and even in the Miami game, where all of a sudden a player was breaking away and Robbie committed a foul to be able to prevent that and make sure that they weren’t going to score. Walk us through those types of plays.

Well, we talked about it. We talked about dead in the play. A different play, a turnover. Instead of having a two on one break for the other team. And you’re just fouling, not intentionally but just dead the play so you can get the defense. And we need Robbie on the floor. He’s had some foul trouble here as of late.

Turnovers are always a big issue and you guys had 10 in the first half. Kind of got behind, but you cleaned it up a little bit in the second half, shot better than UVa. Is that something that you harp on, taking care of the ball?

I was around a great coach many many years ago and he made the comment that if you watch a person practice, you could probably tell in the first 15 minutes those things that are most important to him, and you’ve seen us practice a lot. And for us, one of those would be to take care of the ball, you’ve got to get a quality shot every time down there. Our teams have typically been ranked nationally in assist to turnover ratio. We’re not there this year. It’s infuriating. It’s frustrating. Our team understands the significance of it. The importance of bad shots and a turnover typically leads to offense for the other team and an outnumbering situation. UVa doesn’t turn people over at a very high clip. Now, they are terrific defensively. But we’ve got to do a better job there and certainly have to do a better job with it on Saturday against NC State, who really gets after you. 

Reece Beekman for Virginia was an all-defensive player last year and he’s tenacious on the defensive end. Did you feel that way too?

Yeah, you’re watching him and there’s a real sense of admiration. The kid has been around, I guess this is his fourth year. He’s seen everything, he’s seen all the plays and all the tricks and he does an incredible job of staying between the man and the basket. He’s got great hands, gets his hands on a lot of things. He’s disruptive. Certainly saw as much in the first half as we did in the second half. He is really good.

You talked after the game about how the front line didn’t play great. It seemed like it kind of got pushed off its mark a little bit. The defense kind of forced them outside of its comfort zone a little bit. Did you kind of see that?

Yeah, that Jordan Minor kid had 16 points, coming in averaging two. Blake Buchanan was also able to get downhill towards the basket and Beekman and Isaac McKneely did a nice job of dropping that thing down to them. This has been a physical frontline for us, certainly Mylyjael and Lynn Kidd, but UVa was certainly more physical than us last night, and that was shocking, to be honest.

Hunter Cattoor was back in the lineup and produced 10 points. I’m sure it’s nice to see him back out there.

Yeah, he’s coming off a head injury. And I’m such a brilliant person. I played my boy 38 minutes. His mom and dad should’ve called me in and get after me. I asked him continually, ‘How do you feel? How do you feel?’ He’s the best, you can count on him night in and night out. We had to limit Isaac McKneely, he’s as big a part of their offense and their team. They need for him to score, [Cattoor] limits him to eight, but again, the story of the game was their front line outplayed ours at times and that got us.

Hunter took a few bumps in that game. Was he OK, there’s no side effects? 

Oh, no. He felt great. You’re gonna take some bumps against UVA. Against their defense. And we certainly did last night, came out of it in good shape and be ready to go on Saturday.

Speaking of that, only four free throws. That’s kind of hard. They get 16 and you get four.

That happens quite often in Charlottesville. I wish I knew the answer, I wish I had an intelligent response for you. Two in the first half, two in the second. It’s really hard to believe.

How do you get to the free throw line more?

You’ve got to establish Lynn Kidd and Mylyjael Poteat. You’ve got to do a better job of moving the ball from one side to the other. Driving along, close out and driving it with physicality off the defender’s hip. So you’re finding contact there. But we’ve done a very good job throughout, but last night was not good in that regard. And that’s a big deal. When they’re shooting that many more foul shots, that takes a chunk out of you. And something we will need to do a better job of, not just Saturday, but the rest of the way.

Coach Christian Webster was talking in one of your film sessions about how they like to shoot the threes and you guys need to be there on the catch. They only had four threes in the game.

Yeah, those came in the first 10 minutes. And two of the four were very well defended. We lost one. Maybe it was [Andrew] Rohde that got away from us. You have to take care of the arc. Clemson and Miami both had made nine. That’s not good enough. Now, those two teams really shoot the ball well. But we thought we had to limit those. Those made threes, we did that, we’re where we needed to be with that, just 15 turnovers makes it really hard to win.

You’re second in the ACC in 3-pointers made right now. Have you liked the way your team has shot from beyond the 3-point arc?

I have been. Robbie’s come on and shooting the ball well, MJ Collins got one down last night. I think Tyler Nickel is playing very well for our team, was good again last night and had some opportunities against Miami that he usually gets down that he missed on Saturday. But what you’re gonna get from Hunter, Sean Pedulla shot the ball well as of late. I feel good about that. Now, you know as good as Lynn Kidd has been, that inside presence and that part of your game has got to be something you can rely on night in, night out. So there’s two parts to it. When you’re established in the post that helps you on the perimeter. And you know what you’re going to get from those perimeter guys.

Why is it so difficult to play at John Paul Jones Arena?

Well, you’ve been there a lot more than I have been. We’ve been there four times. We didn’t go down there during COVID. It’s a remarkable facility. They don’t like the Hokies so it’s full to the gills. That dad-gum pep band right in my ear all night long. And they’re good. They’ve got a good team and are exceptionally well-coached and they get after you. It’s a great place to play. It’s a great environment, as our place Cassell is night in night out. So there’s a lot of things that go into it, but not the least of which is the quality of the opponent.

The Hokies don’t have a single home weekend game in the month of February. It’s weird the way that the ACC schedule stacks up.

I don’t have anything to do with it. I get it the same day that you get it. That’s perplexing and has to be a more fair way now. We had six Saturday home games in league play last year, which is great. But to not have one in the month of February, I hate that. I hate that for our fanbase. We’ve got Duke and Virginia both on a Monday. You play this schedule you’re given and we don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on that, but your point is well taken.

NC State’s another tough place to play down there, another arena that’ll be packed and I guess there’s a little controversy the other night about their game.

Coach Kevin Keatts is a dear friend of mine. Coach Keatts is I think has been tossed in two games this year. I watched the Wake Forest game today. It got a little physical and Kevin took exception to a call, that’s up to him. But he’s a good coach and a really good man and he’s got another good ballclub, so we are fired up to get down there tomorrow and our preparation will be almost complete with a new game. So let’s go play.

What have you seen out of NC State out of the get go?

Same team, different faces. They had those two great guards last year, Jarkel Joiner and Terquavion Smith. Those guys are gone but it’s bizarre. Over the last couple of years when you see a team that’s graduated a lot of people and here they come with a different group and they’re all grad transfers, fourth-year players. DJ Horne, transfer from Arizona State, is probably their best player. They’ve got the big kid back in the post, DJ Burns, who was with them last year, transferred from Winthrop and he is a load. How we defend him and how we go at that matchup is going to be a very important part of this game. Got a Michael O’Connell kid, a transfer from Stanford, that has offered some stability in the backcourt. Quick, gets after you defensively, fast, fouls a lot. But one of those teams that foul so much they can’t call them all and it’s a little bit like Florida State. So we’ve got our hands full. But we had a good day of preparation today, have another one tomorrow before playing on Saturday.

You mentioned DJ Horne had 20 points in that game. Wake Forest is pretty good, but to get that win that kind of stands out, and he’s a good player.

I saw several games today, two of which Wake Forest led the entire game. Notre Dame in South Bend led the entire game until the last minute and then NC State had a side out of bounds, tie score with like four seconds left and they threw it right into Burns, who turned and went to the basket and scored it. Same kind of thing with Wake Forest, but another good NC State team playing the same that we saw them a year ago. Nothing’s changed a lot. A lot of ball screen actions, really get after you in the halfcourt, as well as the fullcourt defensively. They do remind me quite a bit of Florida State, a little bit different in some coverages, but they try to speed you up and force you into some quick shots.

You mentioned DJ Burns, the big center inside rostered at 285 pounds and 6-9. What do you tell your bigs inside when facing a guy that big at the center spot?

He’s a biscuit away from 300. He is a gigantic man with the most nimble feet. He’s quite interesting to watch. He’s good. Very, very good offensively. We’ll need to get him into some actions defensively where he just sits around the nail at the foul line trying to clog things up. He’s a really good basketball player. He’s got great hands and he is a masterful passer. One of those guys again, I’ve mentioned Beekman and others that have been around a long time, he’s seen every double team that the game has to offer and he knows exactly what he’s looking at and he’s just waiting on you. And he puts it down a couple of times. Here comes somebody and he’s throwing a laser to the other side. He’s a talented person. I admire him greatly.

You mentioned a minute ago about some out of bounds play. Last night, I thought your ATO or after timeout plays, you guys seemed to score on a lot of them.

It’s a big part. Go back to the old gentleman that said you should be able to watch your practice. We spent an inordinate amount of time on that. That being at practice or shootaround and defending the other team special teams, out of bounds under, side out of bounds and not allowing a score and that we know what’s coming. We’ve got to be able to guard it. And conversely offensively, how are they going to guard things? What can we exploit? Who can we go at? Those are typically going at your best players. And this team has done a really nice job of running that stuff and running with good pace, delivering the ball when it needs to be there. And again, something that we take very seriously.

NC State has had five different guys lead in scoring in six ACC games. Does it make it difficult when it’s not one guy on the scouting report, it’s so many different guys?

Yeah, very much so. It makes that part of your film study and your time with your team, you’re typically going through seven, maybe eight. And this is one of those games you go into through 10 or 11 and you better be careful because that 10th or 11th guy can make a play that can really hurt you and you haven’t spent enough time on him and his tendencies. We talked about knowing his number, knowing his game. What’s his dominant hand? Can he shoot? We need the long close, we need the short close. So a lot that goes into that and we typically hit four or five on Day 1, which was today, we’ll get another five or six tomorrow. A lot of time that goes into it and our coaches do a remarkable job. Christian Webster is paired with coach Matt Olinger and Kevin Giltner is paired with coach Ace Custis and J.D. Byers is with Ryan Nadeau and they spend a great deal of time on that stuff in preparing our team and making sure that we’re ready to go when game time comes.

This is kind of an unusual one because obviously they got something going on at the arena tomorrow night. And then the game is at noon so you guys won’t be over there until it’s time to play the game basically.

Yeah, I think they’ve got a concert [*editor’s note: NHL game] at PNC tomorrow so we can’t get in. That’s part of it. Those downtown arenas that are gonna have a hockey team, have an NBA team. We don’t run into that a lot. I think that’s the only team in our league that has that, that kind of potential conflict in the downtown arena. It’s a great facility. We’ll get over there 15-20 minutes earlier on Saturday so you know guys can get on the floor and get more shots up. But I don’t have a whole lot of heartburn about that.

NC State is 4-0 when it outrebounds its opponent in conference games but 0-1 when it gets outrebounded. How important can the glass be in that game?

Well, big. Every night there, that part of it is a big big deal. I’d probably say the same thing about us when we rebounded well against Clemson, who really rebounds the ball well. Ian Schieffelin, a nightmare, and PJ with his length and his toughness. To out rebound them was significant. That’s something that’s one of the first things I look at after the game. Those final stats are what was the rebounding battle and something we got to continue to improve upon.

Back in the day when you were at Wofford, did you play NC State?

A few times. Played them several times. The last time I was there, in 2015, I had a really good team. They had a really good team. They went to the Sweet 16 that year. There was a conflict, maybe graduation in PNC, and they liked to play a game in old Reynolds Coliseum. Every year, we played in Reynolds. And we went in and Anthony ‘Cat’ Barber was their point guard for forever. Trevor Lacey was in the backcourt. BeeJay Anya, I’ll remember that name, and it was back and forth. We led a lot of it. NC State came back and went ahead. We hit a shot in a special situation out of bounds under and I called timeout, maybe Mark Godfrey called timeout. And I botched something. They got the ball over top. Lacey was a transfer from Alabama. He shot it at the buzzer and made it and I thought it was a good shot.

That was I think the first year of instant replay. And Carl Hess was on the game. So Carl has his first game back in Raleigh since he tossed Tom Gugliotta and Chris Corchiani, two NC State legends. His first game back in that building, he’d given Godfrey a technical already and he goes over and he’s studying up the monitor and when it takes a little bit longer than you think it should, I turned to my staff and I said I think we got a shot here and he came out of there with all the theatrics and went out to midcourt walked out to midcourt and went no basket and we won the game. That was a heck of a win for us and huge crowd in old Reynolds that was a lot of fun.

Kristen Skiera

You’re really excited about the team this year. Can you talk a little bit about your team and what we can expect out of VT women’s lacrosse?

I mean, I don’t really have a good poker face. Anybody that’s asked me how the team is I’m really excited and I know I should get this high because you know there’s gonna be a lot of lows you got to kind of stay even. But we literally just picked up after a long break. The girls go home for like six weeks. We just picked back up this week, with run tests and weight room tests on Tuesday and then finally back out on the field on Wednesday and Thursday, so yesterday and today. By the numbers, they came back readier and more prepared than ever. They ran faster, jumped higher and lifted more weight than we ever have this time of year, so we’re at a good place from that point in terms of hopefully, knock on wood, injury prevention, and just raising the floor from where we start this season. We’re really excited. And then from a planning standpoint, we just look at each other in practice and we’re like, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’ They’re like reading our minds and they’re doing so well. We don’t want to jinx it. I mean, there’s just a lot of excitement. We can’t even really hide it.

Another thing that kind of stands out to me. We have six fifth-years on the team this year and there’s a huge difference coaching 23- and 24-year-olds versus 18-year-olds and just the back and forth and the great communication and trust and maturity and poise that they play with and they lead with, that’s really something that I know we will continue to benefit from. And then you combine that with just tons of youth. I mean, again, for another year in a row, we’re going to have freshmen all over the field, just being great athletes, but this year we combined it with just a lot more upper-class experience on the field as well. So we’re just in a really good spot. There’s a lot of good players that won’t break the starting lineup for us and that’s a really good spot to be in. It’s a hard decision. I’m nervous already because it’s gonna be so hard to make the starting lineup and how do we incorporate everybody’s strengths, but it’s an amazing problem to have right now.

Before we talk more about the team, how about just your path to get here and your journey in playing and coaching lacrosse?

Yeah, well, I was born a Hokie, my dad is a Hokie, so I was destined to be here. I was fortunate enough to play in the ACC. I think being an ACC athlete shaped me in the most ways, and I was used to playing with the best and striving to be the best and that’s just the the cloth I’m cut from, so I was super fortunate to be a part of three Final Four teams when I was a player at Duke and just unbelievable teams. I had great teammates. We were the most competitive people on the planet, but we treated each other really well. And I think because I had such a great experience in college, that teed me up to actually have enough desire to continue to do it and get into coaching after college and I worked for the winningest coach in women’s lacrosse at my first job out of college, starting the program at Navy, and I literally had the best route through this profession and I had the best mentors that actually had so much passion and that passion transferred to me and I’ve been doing it ever since.

It’s great to be back in the ACC. I started the program at West Point. I thought I would be there forever, buried in the cemetery right by my house. That’s kind of at times what I envisioned and it was definitely a hard decision to leave behind something that I worked really hard, literally gave everything to build, but I left it in a great place and that gave me a lot of confidence to come down here, and just to be back in the ACC and I kind of have some self reflection as a coach, I really do think I’m driven by winning a national championship more than anything. Yes, I love building young women of character and I love that and every day is a challenge. I love helping to build toughness and resilience in young women and I love seeing them be great teammates and form bonds that will last their lifetime. But I honestly am probably driven by winning and winning a national championship. I fell short by one goal three times as a player and I really do think that’s what drives me and I think I’ll be able to rest as a coach and be proud of what I’ve done when I win a national championship and I saw this as a place that would get me to that goal and it made sense. So that’s why I ended up here.

You spent time as a player with Duke and an assistant at Navy and Army, but you also had a stint at UC Davis. From one end of the country to the other, what was that move like?

Yeah. So I was at UC Davis for one year. I mean, I wasn’t even there for a full year. It was one of the most epic years of my life. I think I just kind of had this pipe dream to move out West. I was raised to be very independent. When I graduated from Duke, I actually moved to Australia for six months. That was as long as the working visa was at the time, but I moved there for six months literally to just not be an athlete. All my life I was known for being an athlete and sports and I moved to Australia and I didn’t tell a soul that I played college sports. I just worked at a turf manufacturing company. I lived in a 12-bedroom house on the beach with people from all around the world and I just kind of moonlighted as just learning how to earn a dollar and just be kind of a regular person and not be defined by sports. And so that got out of my system.

But the UC Davis thing, I always wanted to live in California, so I coached Navy for two years. I took a quick stint out there as a volunteer the first few years at the Naval Academy, and then it got a full time job, I wanted to get on the road recruiting and I luckily had great mentors who said go out and do it, get that experience and it was one of the best years of my life. I coached the coolest kids. They biked to practice. They were the happiest kids. The sun’s always shining. I was so close to Napa, so close to Tahoe, got to explore a different side of the country and I absolutely loved it, but luckily a full-time position opened up at the Naval Academy and that brought me back, but yeah, it was an awesome year and I still am close with some of the girls that I coached and it was a really great group of young women. 

What was life like at Army? Like a typical day at Army? How long did you get to be able to work with them?

Not as long as you’d like. I mean, it’s stressful. They wake up at like 5:30 in the morning and by the time we see them, we’re like their last stop of the day. So they’ve gone through like the most rigorous courses, they’ve done all of the cadet things they need to do and so we wouldn’t see them till about 3:30 and it was like our sweet spot and they had to be back down like doing their chores in the barracks eating dinner with the entire corps and so your time is limited. I do think if you were to ask our players here at Virginia Tech, like, ‘Is Coach very timely, is she efficient?’ the answer would be yes.

I’m very crazy about that in particular, but I think we didn’t have as much time to develop our athletes as much time as we have here and there’s a lot of luxuries we have here that we didn’t have at West Point, but we’re still able to be really successful. And so a lot of that is just being efficient, but at the same token, it’s the best part of their day, so if they’re drained by the time they get to play lacrosse at West Point, but it’s the best part of the day. There’s a different kind of coaching mentality there. There’s a lot of gratitude and joy in that and I get to and I get to do this mentality. And so that was a really fun part of the job.

What can you tell us about this upcoming schedule?

I think we’re just looking at that first week. We play three games in the first week, two of the three teams were NCAA Tournament teams, so gives us a great opportunity to start off strong. We won our first game last year, but then we went like 1-5 to start the season last year. We’re playing some similar opponents that we opened with last year. So looking to be able to reverse that, have a stronger start to our season to help set us up for some success in the postseason. But yeah, I mean, obviously we’re looking forward to JMU. Two years ago, we were able to go out there and get a night win against them in that second game of the season, so hopefully I’m looking to be able to do the same this year. But really just kind of identifying that first week and just making our mark, starting strong this season. It would be great for us to kind of reverse our trends from our last two years.

Tell us about the two-time All-American coming back, Olivia Vergano.

She’s literally amazing. We’re all like, ‘We’ve got to find more Olivias.’ She’s mentally just a monster. She’s so competitive. Every little thing that she does wrong bothers her, which is a great thing. We’d rather dial it back then have to dial it up and then physically she’s so strong. She’s so explosive, she’s so dynamic. She’s been able to stay healthy in her time here which has been great, but it’s really just her mentality. She is the best player on our team and really knows that, and she continues to get better all the time. It’s hard for me to critique her, but then she goes home and she makes sure that she doesn’t have a dominant hand or a non dominant hand anymore. And so every single break we take, her work ethic is just insane because she comes back better. You’re like, that’s kind of hard to do when you’re already where you’re at.

So she’s great. And luckily she impacts everywhere on the field for us and she’s really kind of made her mark on the draw circle as well, which has helped us out that she had over 100 draw controls last year, just kind of being in the circle. We can’t say enough about her. I will cry like a baby when she graduates. She was a recruit that had committed to play for us at Army and so she was the one recruit that I was able to take down here with us so I’ve known her for a while. I do have just more of a maternal instinct towards her. She made a big life decision to choose not to serve in the Army. She’s from a whole family of NYPD officers, strong desire to serve so she’s cut from a cloth, a mental cloth, mentality wise from the players I coached at Army and I was worried when I recruited her to be the best player in the Patriot League.

When she came down here to Tech, I was like, ‘Of course you can come down here to Tech,’ but I’m a little worried and so the first day of practice, I always tell the story. We got out there, I was so worried. She was a midfielder at the time. She’s with Shannon Jacobitti and the midfielders are doing a shooting drill. I’m with the attackers and as soon as the drill is over, I go to Shannon asking if Liv is OK. And Shannon said to me, ‘She’s doing OK, Kristen.’ Everyone’s jaws were to the ground. Like, she’s gonna be just fine. And so I was like, ‘Oh my god, we’re throwing this kid into the ACC,’ but she’s made for this and she’s got fire in her belly. And I think she hasn’t got the accolades she deserves, but our team needs to perform so that she can be recognized as one of the best players on one of the best teams.