On Wednesday, Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach Mike Young and legendary track & field coach Dave Cianelli joined Zach Mackey and Mike Burnop on Tech Talk Live. The Hokies (14-10, 6-7 ACC) are back on the hardwood on Saturday at No. 7 North Carolina. Track and field is back in Rector Field House on Friday and Saturday for the Virginia Tech challenge.
Mike Young
Last night, the crowd went nuts, they all got bacon, how about that?
I told you the story of the first time it happened to me in my Virginia Tech career. I had no idea and we’re playing someone and we’re beating the fire out of them, it’s late in the game. Kid misses the first foul shot and the crowd erupts. And I’m looking around like what in the world, this is awesome. What is wrong with these people? Turn to our staff. And somebody said if he misses the second foul shot, misses two in a row, everybody gets bacon you idiot. They said, ‘Didn’t you know the marketing tool?’ I said I didn’t. Pretty cool, a lot of fun. We needed those two misses too last night.
You knew Florida State is a physical team and it was a physical game last night for sure, wasn’t it?
Oh my gosh, it’s everything. He’s [Leonard Hamilton] a great coach and a great man. You’re on edge all the time. They’re running the ball up at you in transition. They’re sending what appears to be nine Florida State people to the offensive glass. Ball goes out of bounds, your ball OB under. They’ve got this zone and all this length, that makes it really hard and we threw one in the backcourt. It was my fault. Side out of bounds and the diamond and that’s difficult, so a lot to manage. They are physical, they’re hard-nosed people, but kind of thought the story of the game was we were quicker to the ball. We outrebounded them 12 after getting our head split open down there and not literally they were tougher than we were in Tallahassee and the rebounding margin down there was as significant as the rebounding margin in here last night and it certainly went a long way in helping us win.
Who do you think is a more physical team between them and going down there and playing Auburn on the road?
Comparable. Coach Bruce Pearl does a little bit more than the full court. But comparable makeup. Auburn’s better, but hard-nosed people that get after you.
You had a halftime lead in those two games before Florida State. This time you were tied into the halftime and blew the doors open in the second half. What was it in that second half that really sparked?
Nothing specific. Just the obvious. It’s a 40-minute game. In Miami and Notre Dame, our defense was not where it needed to be in the second half. That’s inexcusable. I thought our ability to have faith and trust in some of the young guys paid dividends out of necessity. We had to play John Camden in both halves. John helped our team, had two big foul shots in the second half. He defended his spot and he was responsible in his role, Jaydon Young makes the three in the first half, guarded well. Brandon Rechsteiner made a three in the first half, guarded well. So I think all those things factored into us winning.
You guys started the second half on a 10-2 run, how does that fire you guys up?
It was good. It’s encouraging to see that start. A little choppy in the first half. They scored 10 at the under-16 media timeout, which is too much, now one of those was Darin Green Jr., threw one in at the buzzer, from 30 feet. But you know, they didn’t score in the second media. So we come in under-12. It’s 14-10. We had a nice little run there but to start the half the way we did, the second half, the first four minutes are of critical importance, and I thought we really established ourselves on both ends of the floor. Lynn Kidd was very good. 12 points 15 rebounds, awfully proud of him.
What about when Sean Pedulla picks up that fourth foul, what’s that conversation like between you and your staff and what’s going through your head when Sean gets at four?
You know how much admiration I have for him. But I don’t have a lot of trust in him in that situation. Because I had a similar situation here last year. I think it was Pittsburgh, if you’ll recall, and he picked up his fourth foul with about four to play. And there’s all kinds of exchanges going on between the staff. Do we leave him, Do we get him? I stayed with him and he fouled out the next possession. So now I’ve got to get to the end of the game, about three-and-a-half minutes, three minutes, without Sean, and we did it. I thought that the fourth foul occurred at eight minutes. So I got him over and MJ Collins did a great job, Hunter Cattoor did a great job as secondary ball handlers and we were able to get to, I guess I came back with him about the under-four media, which would have been as good as I could have hoped and that helped us a lot.
How about Tyler Nickel? Five points in the first half but he ends up with 15. We talked about last night on the postgame, that dunk he had. We haven’t seen much of that but boy he was fired up after he slammed that one.
He’s a great, he’s a really wonderful fella and he’s great to coach. He had a good look about him. He was moving well and his balance was good. He’s got great hands and to see him shoot the ball like that was fun see it often in practice we’ve seen it in games at times but that was a pleasure to see. I thought he did a good job on his matchups, we’re playing him some behind Robbie Beran at the four, we’re playing him at the three with Hunter, at the two and he’s absorbing that role and those situations quite well.
MJ Collins has moved over and brought the basketball down a couple of times. It seems like he did a really nice job last night. What have you thought of his maturity at that position and have the ability to be able to bring that down?
Very good. He’s poised, he’s under control. He doesn’t try to do too much; he gets us into our stuff. He knows exactly what he’s looking at. I think he enjoys it. And in an effort to wear Sean down, seeing so many people pick him up full court and turn him, make him change direction two or three times. That can take its toll on you. Now Florida State dictates some of that, they kind of force your hand which is fine. They would deny Sean the ball and MJ would have it and we just come into the floor with a double fist. Double Fist is MJ with the ball and Sean’s up on the floor in the action. Went to it. I forget when we went to it, it was eight to 10 games ago, and it was great. It’s been very good, very helpful for our team, very helpful for Sean and everybody else involved.
You guys struggled with the paint points in the first half, but the second half you came out and I think the first two buckets were down inside the paint, you guys flipped the switch in the second. Was that something that was discussed at halftime to try to get the big guys more involved?
No. Your point is well taken. When the ball goes in the post I don’t care who they’re playing. It doesn’t matter when the ball goes in the post, they’re like hungry dogs just boom, right down on top of it. When you have four people around you and the average fan says put it back on the perimeter. Well, these are long men and they foul incessantly. And I say that with great respect, their physical people and it is hard to get that thing back out of there. It is hard to have a clean catch in the post and turn around and score. It’s hard. Lynn did a great job in the second half with it.
I want to ask you too about that Notre Dame game. I know the lineup kind of dictated things a little bit but you had it moved around where Robbie was playing the five and Tyler was in the four spot. Can you just talk us through that a little bit?
When I do that, that is simply, no offense to Lynn or Mylyjael. But when we play Robbie at the five it just gives us another mover, it gives us another ball handler, gives us another floor spacer. And I’m probably doing that for offensive purposes. You know, depending on what the game dictates. I know we talked about that last night. I think we went to it a couple of possessions during in the last couple of minutes. So that’s what that’s all about.
The little things last night, the three offensive rebounds, second-chance points. 23 points off turnovers boy those were just huge.
As physical and hard-nosed as Florida State is, we almost made more foul shots than they took, and that’s a concern anytime you play Florida State is going to live at the foul line. Because they literally just drop their heads and drive. They are tough people and you run the risk of fouling and we had some issues last night with MJ with two three Robbie Baron with two three. You know, we had a couple others. Sean had a little more of his problems in the second half but figured it out, got out there with a big win. Needed it.
What about Hunter Cattoor? Plays 39 minutes, he scores 20 points, but a lot of people in the Cassell were holding their breath when he went down and was holding that elbow again. It almost looked like last year all over.
I’m thinking about it as he’s writhing in pain down there. I’m really good at turning my back just it’ll go away. If I don’t pay attention to it at all it’ll be just fine. I tried that but I turned back around and then I caught myself thinking Chestnut Hill last year, was it his right arm? Was it a left arm? Well it was his left arm, he’s holding his left arm now he’s holding his elbow. Same place that he hurt it up there, for goodness sakes, what is going on? And then there was a stop in play and they were shooting foul shots and he came over close enough within earshot and said, let me get you, let’s take a look at it. And he kind of nodded his head no. I’ll be fine. I have great intentions of getting him off the floor two or three minutes every half. It seems like every time I bring him out. Somebody picks up a second foul, something negative happens. And I’ve got no choice and I’ll tell him we kind of chuckle he’ll chuckle as he goes by, said man I’m trying to give you a break. I just can’t do it right now. You had to go back in. But he’s awesome. And I thought he was terrific last night.
And you talked about trying to get him more shots, but when he makes half the shots, that’s pretty efficient.
He was good, it’s no great secret. He’s not showing up on game night and lacing them up and going to play. He’s in there, he’s got a remarkable routine. Comes in shoots an hour, works on his ball handling. He’s a serious basketball player who wants to play for as long as he can, once his time here is complete. And I love that guy. I really do.
We talked last week a lot about former players wanting to coach. What advice do you give players and guys that want to get into coaching?
The best piece of advice I’ve ever received in my life was from Bob Johnson, who I played for at Emory and Henry and we had the conversation I was a kid, I was 19,20 he asked me what I wanted to do and he said, I remember it so vividly he said if you can see yourself doing anything else in the world, you need to do it. And if you can’t well pursue it and good luck to you. And that’s exactly the message I send to anybody that talks to me, the time away from home, the holidays away from home, the recruiting trips, 38 years later and at 60 years old, I still can’t see myself doing anything else. And I love it. I absolutely love it. But that’s the advice I give them.
Winter meetings concluded and the ACC is expanding to 18 teams next year. 15 will go to the tournament. What were your thoughts on that? Is that something that you’d like to see everybody in?
I like to see everybody in, but with that said, it doesn’t work. Too many days in that facility, rental. It just doesn’t work. Now, I hate the thought of teams being left behind. That’s gonna put a lot of heat on guys, some coaches, if you miss that thing a couple years in a row. That’s not going to bode well on a lot of levels. But there’s no other answer than what we have. That’s something that the ACC had to do. And part of it.
What do you think about adding Cal, Stanford and SMU to the ACC?
I mean, nobody talks about this, or very few people. What an unbelievable opportunity to add Cal and Stanford, two of the finest schools in the world. SMU is a great school. Berkeley, California is a wonderful place. I love Northern California. Palo Alto is a special place, Dallas, Texas. You know, we’re all familiar with Dallas. So it does seem odd. I mean, like with everybody else. My goodness. It’s the Atlantic Coast Conference. They don’t have a lot in common with the Atlantic Coast Conference. But I think they’re great additions. I know the head coach at all those places. And I admire those guys. So they will be welcomed with open arms. We look forward to having the Bears and the Cardinal and the Mustangs as part of our group, they’ll add a great deal I’m sure.
Have you ever got a chance to see much of Steph Curry play? I know you’ve got history. When you were at Davidson playing against him. Just tell us some stories about that.
He’s a wonderful person. He’s a great person, played him seven times as a head coach, during his time at Davidson. None of those worked out very well for me. We were going through matchups. We spent an inordinate amount of time on who’s guarding who. Steph Curry is that guy now, he’s a legendary kid. I think he’s a sophomore at Davidson. We don’t have a matchup for him. I’ve got a guard, a freshman point guard from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, who’s a very good defender but he’s a rookie and he’s not very big. We have a great game. Davidson beats us by a couple at home. I’m walking off the floor and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Man, Brad Loesing did a great job on Steph.’ I think he held him to 18, 20 and I’m thinking all this in my head and our SID hands me the stat sheet. I looked down the kids got 40. He was then he is now a once in a lifetime player. Great player and I’m telling you in all my experiences with him, never one time was he a jackleg. He was a pro. He comported himself in a class fashion. He’d just kick your tail and keep moving it down the road. And he’s doing the same thing, has done the same thing in the NBA for a long time and certainly is a pleasure to watch.
What do you see out of the Tar Heels in preparation for that game on Saturday?
They look pretty good to me. I said my first real look, I watched some of the Duke-North Carolina game. I’ve seen bits and pieces of some other games, but really sat down for the first time and got our feet wet in kind of what we’re looking at little different personnel. Of course, we know Cormac Ryan from Notre Dame was with them and playing very well for them. We’re unfamiliar with Harrison Barnes, a really good four-man from Stanford, a transfer. They’ve got a couple others. Armando Bacot is leaner and in better shape playing very well. RJ Davis right now is probably the MVP of our league. So tough matchup, but we’ll have two great days of preparation. We’ll get down there on Friday and be ready to go on Saturday. I look forward to being in that building and going at it again.
You mentioned Bacot and RJ Davis and that one-two punch. They’re pretty talented and they cause a lot of problems.
They cause a lot of problems, Bacot is really running the floor. You used to be able to put him in some ball screens and make it hard for him to move his feet, boy he’s lost some weight, he will switch onto a guard now and keep him in front of him. Running the floor in transition well. Impressed with what Bacot has done with his game. Cormac Ryan’s helped their team a lot. He seems like a really good teammate, a guy that knows how to play, a conscientious player. Not that the others aren’t. That’s not my point. He seems like a really good addition to this Tar Heel team.
This is the second time this season you’ll be doing this game on Saturday and then flip it around to a game on Monday. What’s that in between time gonna look like for your team?
We’ll keep those guys settled. We’re not going to spend all day over there on Sunday with them. We’ll go over early. It’s a two o’clock game. That’s an advantage. We’ll get back I would say seven, 7:30 and take that to decompress and get everything together. We’ll be there early on Sunday. Of course we played UVA so much in our time here. Not a lot has changed, we played them, I don’t know three weeks ago. a month ago. We know what we’re looking at but it’ll be a long day and then we’ll bring our team over. Probably four o’clock. We won’t spend a whole lot more than an hour on Sunday with them. They know the actions, they know what they’re looking at. It’ll be some technical stuff, maybe some special teams work and how we want to guard this and that. We’ll watch the film of the North Carolina game for 5,6,7 minutes. Will take a little break. We’ll come back and we’ll go right to UVA, as really a refresher as much as anything else and then on the floor. And we’ll walk through a number of UVA actions and what we’re looking at and how we want to guard it. And then Monday will be a bigger day. With our shoot around and throws in the air on seven o’clock Monday night.
Dave Cianelli
How are things going? I know you guys are in the heart of it, a lot going on too this indoor season right now. How are things?
Yes, sir. We’re busy. We’re in our indoor season. Next week, we’ll be at our ACC championships in Boston. Yeah, we gotta go to Boston. New Balance, build a new facility up there and BC is the host, and we’re looking forward to going up there. So that’ll be it. That’ll start a week from tomorrow, actually.
You’ve been here since 2001. Unbelievable career what you’ve been able to accomplish. Just walk us through how you got here because you were at SMU before you came here.
I was. I left SMU and then I’m leaving Virginia Tech and then they’re coming into the ACC. So I’ve been coaching a long time, I started off coaching high school in California. I grew up in Maryland though, right outside of DC so not too far from here. And then I coached Division II for four years at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Now they’re DI but they were DII at the time. And then from there to SMU in Dallas, and that was 1988 and I was 13 years there as an assistant and then started here at Tech in July of 2001.
And how have things changed since you got here?
It’s crazy how things have grown. I mean, everything, facilities, and just the resources that we have here at Virginia Tech compared to when I first arrived in 2001 and we were just going into the Big East at that time. And so that was a transition from the Atlantic 10. And then just a couple years later, you know, we jump into the ACC, and another step up. And it took a while to really get things to where we could be competitive. But I was always confident from day one that we would get there. And so, 2006, 2007, that was kind of the turning point. First with the women. Queen Harrison and Kristi Castlin, two of our all-time greats. They came in about that time and really kind of turned the corner for us and really got us on the map. And then the men starting in about 2009, we became fully funded from a scholarship standpoint. And then really from that point on we’ve been competitive right up at the top of the ACC.
You announced that this will be your final season leading the charge here at Virginia Tech. You’ve got a long legacy that goes down but when you look back what do you hope your legacy is here at Virginia Tech?
Well, coaches tend not to look back, we’re always waiting or looking to the next game, next meet, next recruit. But now that I’m close to the end of this ride, I am looking back a little bit more and kind of realizing that we have built a really strong foundation, it’s not just one person. All the assistants, the student athletes that have come through, our administration has been really supportive of our program. And it’s taken a lot of people to build what we’ve built over the years and so I’m really proud that I can leave the program in really good shape and you know, coach Ben Thomas will take over in July and I think he’ll do a fantastic job. And it’s just time for me to move on to something new.
19-Time ACC Coach of the Year. Did you have to build another wing on your house for all the awards I mean, where do you keep all those trophies and plaques?
They’re in my office, but you know, I got to pack all that stuff up and find room for it somewhere. I don’t know. Those sorts of things are great. But again, most of those awards are built on the backs of really great assistant coaches, and great student athletes. And I just happen to get the credit for it at the end of the day, but I’m not out there. I’ve scored zero points at the ACC meet. I tell my kids that. I said even though I might get the credit at the end of the day, with Coach of the Year or whatever it is, but you know, they’re the ones out there. Working and sweating every day and putting everything they have into it on a day to day basis and they’re the ones that really deserve the credit.
You’ve got 13 assistant coaches, you have the men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s track and field indoor and outdoor. How do you keep it all straight? There’s just so many moving pieces.
It’s a three ring circus for sure. I got great assistants. I have a fantastic director of ops, Katie Kennedy. And she kind of keeps us sane, and keeps us from going off the rails. And it’s hard though. I mean, there’s just like you said there’s a lot of moving parts. And when we travel, sometimes we don’t even travel to the same meets. We’ll split up our events, you know, depending. But our goal is always to be ready for the conference championships. That’s always what we focus on. And really point towards.
Rector Field House was built when we were playing football way back in the day, that thing has changed dramatically. The additions that they’ve made, just talk about the change to Rector over the years.
When I first arrived in 2001 it was used by Coach Beamer and football, during the spring if the weather was bad, and so they would just build the track in the winter for indoors. And then they will take it down and store it and it was kind of crazy but now with a full time facility, it’s all been redone and new surface and everything, a new throw area with the 2019 renovation. We have a really fantastic indoor facility and in this area of the country, where we are weather wise you really need to have something like Rector to be able to develop your athletes when the weather’s poor outside. I owe that to Whit [Babcock] and Chris Helms and our administration for being willing to invest in the facility and in our program and it’s huge. Huge in recruiting, but probably most importantly, just the development of the athletes.
What about this weekend? You guys had the Virginia Tech Challenge? It’s going to be happening in Blacksburg, Virginia. What can you tell us about that?
This will be our final home meet of the season. This will be our fourth home meet, we typically host four meets and we’ll have probably about 14 teams that come in. Now since we’re only a week out from conference. This is typically just a tune up for conference so not everybody will compete and the same with teams that come in, sometimes we’ll just send maybe eight or 10 athletes that need maybe one final competition before conference. And then pretty much everybody has their conference meet next week. So, we’ll compete with some of our people. A lot of our conference people will have this weekend off in preparation for the conference meet next week.
Tell us about Cole Beck.
Cole, he’s one of a kind. You know, local kid, great kid. I knew him in high school. He went to school with my son. So I’ve known him for a long time, lives in my neighborhood. I know his parents very well. Just a super individual. And he was a really great track athlete in high school along with obviously being a great football player. And we recruited him hard for track from day one and he decided to come to Tech to play both football and track and then when he got injured in football and focused on track for a year. You could really see the development as a sprinter. And then, you know, last year running 9.97 in the 100 meters. I mean, that’s the fastest of any football player ever. No one’s ever run faster than football. That’s how fast that is. And think about these guys in the NFL and how fast they are. Any of those guys that ran track never ran 9.97. So he really works for it, I mean, he just doesn’t show up and step out on the track and run that. He works extremely hard every day. And he’s gonna be successful regardless of what happens with athletics. His work ethic is just off the charts. Great guy, just a great guy.
Print
And I always thought T&F was underfunded by VT. Doesn’t sound like it. That’s good.