Tech Talk Live Notes: Mike Young And John Szefc

On Wednesday, Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach Mike Young and baseball coach John Szefc joined Zach Mackey and Mike Burnop on Tech Talk Live. Young’s team is back in action on Saturday vs. Georgia Tech (5 p.m. ET, ACCN) while Szefc & Co. open their season on Feb. 16 at Charlotte.

Mike Young

In your win over NC State on Saturday, that thing was back-and-forth. Then you guys just turned it on in the last seven, eight minutes.

We did. Top to bottom, I thought we weren’t great. You can’t turn the ball over 20 times and expect to beat anybody. You’re playing with fire when you do that, but we were very good defensively. I thought we had some timely shots. Hunter Cattoor had a big shot in front of our bench. Tyler Nickel had another really nice game for us. Anytime you win on the road, those are gold in college basketball and to go into PNC Arena and do that, it gave us a pop in the next couple of practices in the lead-up to Boston College, and that was another good one last night, so great win in Raleigh, certainly.

We talked pregame about D.J. Burns and what he brings for NC State on the inside. You held him to just eight points. What did you see out of your two bigs in Raleigh?

Well, it’s a five-man proposition. Lynn Kidd and Mylyjael Poteat did a great job. Mylyjael even a little bit better than Lynn, and Lynn was good. Mylyjael’s got that big ol’ body, like a tree stump. You can’t move him, and we were going to send our four down to him on to catch. And that’s tricky. It’s got to be violent. It’s got to be quick. And if it’s not, he’s going to feel it. He’s going to see it coming and know that it’s coming. I think the best part of his game is his passing, he throws lasers to the other side for an extra pass, made three. Robbie [Beran] and Mekhi [Long] did a really nice job of getting to him.

He threw one off the rim in the first half, like the third possession of the game, if you’ll recall. And he’s seen a lot of double teams. You have to double him. I saw him play North Carolina in our preparation. They gave North Carolina everything they wanted, and Armando Bacot is a large human being. He was wearing Armando’s rear end out with his back to the basket. It was like two sumo wrestlers going at it in the post and then D.J. would find an angle and stick it in the hole. So we had to go at him. We did, and I thought by and large, winning that matchup maybe, quite possibly, was the key of the game.

You kind of limited the damage from Casey Morsell and DJ Horne, but those two guys are pretty good players.

We played them twice last year, once here and then in the ACC Tournament. Casey Morsell had our number. He had a good game down there, 19 points. I didn’t realize he shot 10 fouls. If you recall, DJ Horne is really good. I thought Hunter did a great job on him. MJ Collins guarded him some and did a nice job on him. DJ Horne is a really good player and [was] 6-of-13 shooting.

We did a good job limiting their three. It was very important to us going in; they made six, which is outstanding. Boston College made six as well last night. Along those same lines, this one on Saturday, that will be a big key for our team is limiting Georgia Tech’s threes. Those threes kill and I think anytime you hold a good team to six or less, that’s a pretty good night’s work. 

What can you tell us about the status of some of those guys that were unavailable last night for the Boston College game?

Brandon Rechsteiner worked out today, we did not practice as a team. Rechsteiner worked out. I spoke to him in passing as we were going to film and just simply said, ‘Hey, how are you feeling?’ My understanding yesterday was that it was best to hold him last night. Fully expecting him to play on Saturday against Georgia Tech. He told me that he felt a lot better. I expect him to be full contact tomorrow and Friday and be ready to go on Saturday. Mekhi Long had a little swelling in his knee. And he was looked over thoroughly today by our orthopedic surgeon. I don’t think it’s anything out of the ordinary. It’s an ongoing thing. To put it in NFL terms, he’s probable for Saturday’s game.

John Camden has been sick. We expect John back in the building tomorrow, maybe Friday, and he’ll be in uniform on Saturday as well. So it’ll be nice to have a few more bodies. We only played seven guys last night, very uncomfortable doing that, we got some luck in not having severe foul trouble other than Sean Pedulla late in the game, which could’ve cost me, but I think we’re getting better in health, which is always a positive.

JPJ at UVa is a great arena. PNC Arena is another place that absolutely rocks when it’s full. That’s a tough place to go play.

I was a great admirer of the old Reynolds Coliseum. I played in there, coached in there several times. PNC is a great downtown arena or whatever you call it. That’s a loyal and boisterous fanbase, always has been, very accustomed to winning; they expect to win. The two national championship banners up in the rafters from ‘74 and ‘83. They rolled them in there. It’s a good crowd. It’s a knowledgeable crowd. They get after you a little bit when you slide too far down on the baseline, the student section will get you a little bit, but a great crowd, a great home environment and again, to roll in there and get a win was tremendous.

Did you get a chance to watch the video going around social media with the ACC Network sitting down with 10 basketball players in the conference and asking what’s the hardest place to play? About eight of them said Cassell Coliseum.

I heard about it. I haven’t seen it. I’ll try to find it tonight. I can’t tell you the number of ACC coaches that will stop me on the road and comment on just how hard it is to come into Blacksburg and with that Cassell Guard, the Hokie faithful and to try and win a game in the Cassell. Guys, that building and our fanbase and our student section probably went a long way in getting out of there last night. They missed two front ends of one-and-ones late in that game, if you’ll recall. Great to have the students back. They were awesome, as they always are. Need them again on Saturday. We got another challenge in front of us on Saturday.

How was your interaction with Jim Boeheim? He was there as the color analyst. He was probably glad he wasn’t coaching.

I love him. I admire him. He was very kind and supportive of me when I first came into the league. You talk about a legend. That guy has won a lot of games. I laughed when I first saw him. I went on the floor purposely to see him. He was talking to Bill Roth and a big smile came across his face and this is a true story. I said, ‘I watched you leave this building last February when we played here and I thought to myself, that’ll be the last time that Jim Boeheim ever steps foot in Blacksburg.’ And he said, ‘You’re probably saying that same thing about Syracuse, New York, on your last trip or whenever that might be.’ And I said, ‘You’re darn right. You’ll never see me there again.’ But here he is. He said, ‘Lo and behold, I’ve got a nine o’clock game,’ but he’s enjoying his time with ESPN.

He’s got about 15 [games], he’s in the studio. He’s an avid reader. We always talk about favorite authors or books he’s reading right now. I think a lot of his wife, Julie. She’s a delightful lady. Asked about Buddy and his family. That’ll go down when this thing is all said and done. I hope 10 years from now is a real highlight in my career having the opportunity to coach against the likes of Jim Boeheim, having done the longevity at the same place. He’s a wonderful man.

There was some talk at shootaround yesterday about how you guys were preparing for Boston College. You were trying to scheme up some things and I heard that you brought Hunter Cattoor up to the coaches’ offices to try to talk him through how you thought you should defend something. Is that true?

Yeah, it is. I played not very well about forty years ago. And here’s a young person that’s played more basketball games than anybody in Virginia Tech history. We’ve been through a lot of battles together. He’s done it and he’s done it at a high level. And I’ll sometimes do that with Hunter, with a couple of them. ‘Here’s what we’re looking at. Here’s what we got a problem with, how would you guard it? What are your suggestions?’ And we kind of talk through it. It was an action they typically run from side out of bounds where they stack two players at the top of the key and one at the nail at the foul line. And it can be a post and it can be a guard underneath the post. It could be a guard, post underneath the guard. And that’s a ball screen, post is popping out of it. There’s a lot that goes into it.

So we talked through it for probably 30 minutes and with his thoughts, as a staff, we came to a conclusion on how we wanted to guard it. Now, it typically happens, when the ball goes in the air and we saw it one time at the end of the half, we did guarded exactly right. And it wasn’t exactly designed how we talked about it the day before in my office, but I have great faith in Hunter and his vision and he sees it well, he sees it as a coach does and we do that a lot. I’ll do it in a timeout. ‘What do you think? How do you want to guard that?’ And they’ve got really good thoughts and really good answers on a number of occasions.

Hunter was talking after the NC State game that he didn’t want to just sit there and let the clock run, that they had to go out there and take the game in the last seven, eight minutes. Did you sense that in the huddle or did it just kind of naturally happen?

A lot of encouragement in those timeouts. We saw much of the same thing at Florida State down there a couple of weeks earlier when we were up eight with 11, 12 to go and we were right there, we were on the cusp of breaking it open and we mishandled some things, we didn’t take care of the ball very well, we had some terrible mistakes defensively. Can’t do that at home or away, certainly not on the road, and I think as a reminder, here we are, got to make these plays, we’ve got to make enough plays, more plays than Boston College does to get out of there, NC State does, we did that.

You have been moving Tyler Nickel around a little bit without Mekhi Long. Have you liked the versatility out of Nickel?

Yeah, I do. Devin McGlockton wasn’t a very good matchup for anybody we had on our roster last night. I just thought that was less than ideal with Tyler guarding him. I just think with Tyler at the four, gives you another floor spacer with his ability to shoot and there’s a number of our actions offensively that require the four to slide back to the perimeter, so we can throw it to him and throw it in. Well, if the guy that slides out, the four can’t shoot it. Robbie can. If the four can’t shoot it, we don’t have to guard him. So backing in is not going to be there because again, the four’s unguarded. Tyler’s going to be guarded with what he has done in his time here and he’s a willing passer and a good player, he’s coming on like gangbusters. It’s a pleasure to see and he’s a wonderful kid.

Lynn Kidd had a tough game up at UVa, but boy, he’s put together a back-to-back really nice games.

Very much so. And I take nothing away from Lynn. I can’t mention Lynn without also talking about Mylyjael Poteat. That has been quite the duo here. At NC State the other day, we got 22 points, and I think eight rebounds from that pair, and then again last night, nice production, 18 points. I think maybe we’re getting really good play out of both those guys and it’s a nice duo. When you consider the game and all this ball screen and stuff and typically it’s the five that’s coming up to set those ball screens and your defensive five out for us, Mylyjael and Lynn, they’re on their horse all night long, running to the top of the floor, hedging the ball screen, sprinting back into the post to get back to their match.

They’re sprinting in transition to get the wall set and corralling, literally corral the ball like you would on the farm, corralling an animal, just trying to slow the ball down. We’ve got a lot on their plate every time out and for Lynn to play 24 and Mylyjael 18, if I’m not mistaken, it is a real luxury. That depth at that spot is significant and Patrick Wessler continues to come on. He is close to helping our team and he’s working at it. He’s in really good shape. He is champing at the bit here I know.

An interesting call made last night was that punch ball call, have you seen that before?

I’ve been in the business 38 years, I’ve never seen it, I’ve never heard of the call. John Gaffney, who’s outstanding and said he punched the ball and I said, ‘I didn’t know it was illegal.’ He said, ‘Yes. You can’t do that. So, Hokies ball.’ I’ll take any of those who want to get me.

Even Jim Boeheim said he had never seen that called in a game either in his long career.

He’s been around longer than I have. So not something you see very often. I’m just glad we got the basketball.

Two things that are not really basketball related: How about Whit Babcock today, his 10-year anniversary of working at Virginia Tech.

That’s pretty cool, 10 years. And I’m sure Whit will tell you, time flies when we’re having fun. He’s a terrific administrator. I don’t want to work for another athletic director. He’s not looking over your shoulder. He gives you the opportunity to do your job. He’s very supportive. I can’t begin to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed working for him.

The second thing: The football schedule came out today. Did you get a chance to see it?

I sure did, went over that thing like a fine-tooth comb. Vanderbilt on the road, Marshall at home, at Old Dominion, Rutgers at home, at Miami. It’ll be a bunch of wins on there. I can’t wait to get back in Lane Stadium and see our boys go out and I’m thrilled with what they have returning and what they were able to retain and those they have coming in. Clemson at home in November. I have a hard time with those November home games, y’all, it gets a little too cold out for me. And our practices and our seasons are breaking up about the same time as the Clemson game. It’s a great football schedule. I know our fanbase, I know we’re all excited about it. I look forward to it. But let’s slow down. We got a lot more to look forward to between now and then.

I know you didn’t get a chance to see it, but not only did the Hokies win last night, but Red Panda was in the house, a great halftime performance. She didn’t drop a single bowl. She was good.

We go over to the women’s locker room, their gameday locker room, at halftime to talk adjustments and I’m coming out of their locker room going back down in the tunnel and there was this big roar and I’m like, ‘What in the world is going on at halftime that could generate that kind of roar?’ And then I look out and I see this young lady peddling that unicycle and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s Red Panda. I didn’t know she was going to be there’. That’s a great halftime entertainment. She’s outstanding.

How about MJ Collins and the way he has been playing, taking some of the shoulder, bringing down the ball some and playing the point, what he’s doing other than scoring.

Helping us, helping us in a big way. He’s defending very well. Again, had some struggles early on and I don’t know what to attribute that to. He’s doing a nice job at the point guard spot and gets Sean the ball and gives him some action. He’s not laboring with the thing coming up the floor all the time for 40 minutes. I thought he had a really good game last night. He missed a couple of shots he typically gets down. Made a big three in the first half. He batted one down in the second half, got up the length of the floor and dunked it home. Proud of him. MJ has been playing really good basketball for our team.

I’m sure you’ve already got the prep going after Georgia Tech here. What stands out about them?

They shoot a lot of threes. They lead our league in two-point field goal percentage, but they shoot a lot of threes. Ball screen after ball screen after ball screen. Their posts guys do a good job of rolling out of it catching the ball around the foul line and spraying it to the other side. They’re very unselfish. Damon Stoudamire, who was a great player at Arizona, played in the NBA for a long time, is in his first year down there and is doing a very nice job with his team. A good man, looking forward to the competition, look forward to being back in Cassell on Saturday.

Some of the guys were talking about after the game, the way you guys moved the ball around. The last part of that NC State game and Boston College last night, it’s really hard to guard when you get the paint touch and when you got production inside. When you’ve got guys that are making threes outside, it makes it difficult for you guys to be guarded, doesn’t it?

It does. But you’re easily guarded when the ball sticks and when the ball doesn’t get to multiple sides when there’s not a ball reversal. And we’ve struggled through some of that. I think we have seen a real step in a positive direction. We’re doing better and that’s how the game is supposed to be played. That’s how kids want to play when everybody feels empowered and involved, and I tip my cap to them. They’re coming around and we’ve got a number of gravity shooters.

Hunter Cattoor is a gravity shooter. I’m afraid to leave this gap because I know if that guy touches it, it’s going in the air and is probably going in the basket. Tyler Nickel, Sean Pedulla, which in turn opens up opportunities in the interior for Lynn and Mylyjael. Robbie Beran is playing a lot better basketball for us. Got another three down in the first half opposite our bench. Had those two big shots down the stretch, man, that thing is hanging in the balance. We’ve got a two-point lead and we know that we’ve got a foul. I think it’s under 30 seconds. He got both of them down. We were 16-16 and that thing can cost you games, that can help you win games, and our ability to step up to the line and make those last night was huge and we got a nice win.

John Szefc

Coach, how are things?

Good. Kind of getting ramped up and obviously the weather the last couple of days have been really helpful, whereas last week it wasn’t, so it can be challenging preparing for an outdoor sport indoors. Last year, we weren’t in it at all. And then last week was a tough one. I’ll tell you what, one thing that’s helped us out a lot is the new pitching building that we have. It allows us to kind of split our pitchers in one and then the hitters in another and it’s really helped us to prepare guys indoors if we’ve had to go in there.

Talk about the offseason. What were things that you kind of concentrated on, looked at and done, kind of wanted to get done?

I mean, we went through a typical fall, in which I mean we’ve played upwards of 20 intrasquad games, played Georgetown at home, went and played Tennessee on the road down there. I like to try and get guys out of Blacksburg, kind of get them out of their comfort zone a little bit. We played against a good team. We played in front of a couple thousand people there. Played on a dirt surface which we don’t have here, it’s all turf. I want to get our guys on dirt for a day if I could. It was just good. It was good to kind of get some new young guys in a situation where they had to figure it out quick because you’re playing against a good team and in a good environment. So that helped us, but it’s probably like a lot of other sports. We have eight transfer arms, which is a lot for us. We haven’t had that many before. Ten total transfer guys, but you know, that’s kind of the way it is in this day and age of the transfer portal. This team is similar to what we had in ‘22 at this time. In that, I think we have a lot of talented guys, but you just don’t know who they are. Their names are not Gavin Cross or Tanner Schobel or people that are returning guys. Which is fine. Like, I learned a lot from the ‘22 team, I didn’t think we’re gonna be very good that year at all, to be honest with you. And we ended up being pretty good. So hopefully we’ll figure it out and be somewhere in that range. I hope so.

You spoke about that pitching lab, and I think a lot of people see that out in left field during games. What is in there? What technologies do you guys have? 

We have a TrackMan device in there which calculates a lot of things other than just velocity. We have a lot of cameras in there. You put one behind the pitcher so it’ll kind of give you an idea as far as the shape of his hand or where his hand is at release point, one above them. Like there’s a lot of instant feedback. There’s like five different televisions in there. You can hook the cameras up to see it live and a lot of these guys get instant feedback. It really helps with their development. It’s not just an indoor bullpen when it’s cold outside. It can be that, but it’s more, we use it on good weather days too, the doors roll up and it’s just been a really big advantage for us, which we didn’t have in the past.

From a fan standpoint, what can fans expect this year’s at English Field?

It’ll be the second year for the LED lights in the stadium and they’ve helped us a lot compared to the old ones. Obviously, our biggest addition is the new turf. The old surface that was there was the first artificial surface that was put down here, so it was way outdated. I mean the same surface that Chad Pinder and Joe Mantiply played on prior to 2013 when they finished, so it was outdated. Nowadays, you’re playing a lot of summer events that go on during summer baseball. So typically astroturf, the lifespan of it, used to be maybe around eight to nine years; now it’s probably closer to five because of all the action that it sees.

When you walk into the ballpark now, you’ll see the new surface with the lights on it. It’s gonna appear to be way brighter. It’s a lot easier on the body, to be honest with you. We would have some lower body injuries on the old stuff. It was just time to go, to be honest with you. And so we’re lucky enough where the administration replaced it and they replaced a few other things too. We also had the surface inside Weaver, our hitting facility, was replaced, that was kind of just part of it, and that’s really helped. We put another TrackMan device in there so we can play like live games in there off the computer, believe it or not. It’s pretty cool. We weren’t able to do that before. So there’s a lot of updates in there both in the buildings, which you can’t see, and then in the ballpark, what you can see.

There’s a lot of new faces, a lot of guys that maybe aren’t known to Hokie fans. One of the guys that is and is getting a lot of accolades coming up is Carson DeMartini. What can you say about the third baseman for the Hokies?

We were lucky when he came in here and in ’22, he was on that really good team of older guys. So he didn’t really have to be the guy, but since those guys have left, now he kind of moves into more of that role. He’s also coming off of shoulder surgery, which he had to have last year, he got hurt in a freak sliding play vs. Georgia Tech. But he’s probably about 90 percent right now. He’ll be probably back to 100 right about the time we start the season. Just a really educated polished hitter, left-handed hitter, should be a real elite level draft pick I would think just because he’s gonna play multiple positions at the pro level. I mean, third base is his position here right now. He could play the middle, could play first. He actually played a little bit of first today for us and then short with the little intrasquad we had. We try to not just crush him right out of the gate, the throws, especially in January, but I mean, he’s kind of like the face of our offense, for sure. He’ll probably hit right in the bulk of it, driving a ton of runs. And I think you’ll see he’ll probably play the game for a living for a while too when he’s done here.

You’ve got seven players that were actually on that 2022 team that are still with you.

Yeah, we’re lucky enough where we do and that’s kind of like the intangible experience that those guys have and can bring. I think it kind of helps a lot of our new players and we have quite a few new players that I think kind of lean on that a little bit. Maybe feed off it because we’ll refer back to that team and some of the things that team did and how they acted. Not necessarily just baseball, hit, pitch, throw, but how they worked and how they got along and they all spent time with each other away from the field.

So guys like DeMartini, just one example. Griffin Green, another guy who won’t pitch this year for us because of an injury, but he’s a great leadership guy for us and he’s back here rehabbing. He may have a chance to sign the spring and if he doesn’t, maybe you might see him back in a Hokie uniform next year for a fifth year because he does have a year eligibility left. So we’ll see what happens with that. But those are two examples of what we’re talking about. Green pitched on Fridays for us and DeMartini has been one of our best position players in the last two years.

I know you guys have a big event coming up with Baseball Night in Blacksburg, some big time guests coming through with Roger Clemens. What can you tell us about that?

That’s on Saturday the 10th. We’re actually going to have it in the Hahn Hurst Basketball Practice Facility. Moved it over there because last year, we had up in the performance center and it just got too tight. We needed more space and they’ve had some events there before and we were lucky enough to catch a date that was open on that Saturday. It’s the day before the Super Bowl. It’s the day before Kenny Brooks and his girls play. They’ve got a one o’clock start the next day I think against Notre Dame so it should be good. That’s the only day Clemens could come too, which you’ve kind of gotta go when the guys are gonna come. What I’ve tried to do is also bring other baseball people in, like I am really excited to have Erik Neander come in, he’s the GM of the Rays. And he’s a Virginia Tech guy. Joe Mantiply will be there, a former Virginia Tech guy who started a game in the World Series this year. And other guys we’ve had, Gavin Cross, a first rounder, and Tanner Schobel and a few other people will be there.

So it’ll be good. Last year, we had Chipper Jones come in here and it’s a good kind of kickoff for us. Evan Hughes does a great job with the Q&A part of it. He really helped that event last year with the Q&A he did with Jones. We actually have a few tables left that we’re going to probably re-release on Friday. We had a couple of cancellations. It should be good. I’m excited anytime you have a guy like Clemens, a guy with that kind of baseball résumé comes in. It’s really not necessarily just about what he did, but it’s about the kind of stories he can tell, like I grew up in New York in the 70s and 80s. And I really want to hear that guy talk about the World Series in ‘86 against the Mets. He started the Bill Buckner game and fits really well on it. And everybody knows that game as a series. And so that’s kind of one little thing I’m interested to listen to. 

That event continues to grow and grow, and you’ve had some great guests over the years since you’ve been here. 

Yeah, we’ve had some really interesting people, I think as far as having guys like Tim Kurkjian and Billy Ripken and Jeff Passan, baseball people that might not be household names unless you really know what’s going on. The thing with Chipper worked out last year, Brad Clontz, a former player helped get him here, and another former player helped bring in Clemens. We’ll kind of see where things go from here, it’s kind of hard to top this when you set the bar that high with those two guys, but I have some ideas for next year. A lot of it comes down to who can come and when they can come, if you can bring a personality like that into Blacksburg. I think it’s an interesting night when you combine college baseball and high level professional baseball. I think it’s a great listen for three hours in the month of February. I’d like to think the people that have a baseball interest would like to come and listen.

This is your 19th year, seventh at Virginia Tech. Has it flown by?

I think in some respects it has, it really has. As I look back when I started, I had no kids. I wasn’t married. Now all these years later, married with three kids, who are almost out of the house. The thing that’s been interesting for me is some of the first guys I coached at Marist in the 90s, now they’re sending their kids to our camp. And I’m saying to myself, ‘Man, I’m not that old,’ but it’s interesting to see some of these guys bring their kids and it happens pretty frequently. It’s not just like a here and there kind of thing. So that’s kind of a fun thing for me to see those and a lot of guys that are still involved in baseball.

I’ll tell you a cool story. Tim Bittner, he’s the Atlantic region scout for the Royals. He played for me at Marist in the 2000s and he started the game in 2001 where we beat Long Beach State in the Stanford regional. Well, he’s the scout who drafted Gavin Cross here. So you’ve got a former player who’s now a scout, Gavin, who is the one first rounder I’ve ever had. I’ve had a lot of other really good picks. Brandon Lowe in the third round, LaMonte Wade when I was in Maryland, and we’ve had some pretty high picks here, but first rounders, those guys are pretty special guys. But to have a guy who played for you draft the current player, that was pretty cool.