Everything From Virginia Tech HC Mike Young After Battle 4 Atlantis Loss to Saint Mary's

Virginia Tech men's basketball head coach Mike Young spoke to the media after the Hokies' 77-66 loss to Saint Mary's in the Battle 4 Atlantis' second round. Here's the entirety of what Young had to say:

Opening statement:

"Congratulations to St. Mary's. Really good program, coach that that I've admired for a long time. And his team was a little bit better than ours today. But I take nothing away from our team. I thought we had a bit of adversity with Tobi [Lawal, who missed the contest with a lower-body injury]. And these guys sucked it up and played good basketball. Gave ourselves a shot going down the stretch. Saint Mary's made some timely shots and defended well when they had to. Couldn't get on track offensively in the first half and that's frustrating. I'll go back at it and dissect that. To go down, I guess we were down 11 at the half and only scored 20. We scored 46 in the second, looked like ourselves again. But good college basketball game. I hate that we came out on the wrong end of it. Tobi will be fine. More precaution than anything. I don't think that he'll play tomorrow. He's got a foot injury. We don't think it's anything terrible. But we will know more as we move along. He's in a boot as a precautionary measure. If he absolutely had to, probably could have gone today, but again, thought that if we err, it should be on the side of precaution. We've got a long way to go. We got many more mountains to climb and we need to get him healthy and do the right thing by him and our team."

On Saint Mary's defense:

"They're good. [Saint Mary's head coach Randy Bennett's] teams have always been good on that end of it. Just different pieces. They lost a couple of really good players last year. [Joshua] Dent played very little [last year] but is a good defender. Not a lot of weakness and and [Andrew] McKeever in there, that cleans up any mistakes that that they might make with your cutting. Having said all that now, I will be curious to go back [and look at the film]. I thought we had some really good shots in the first half from guys we want taking them. We couldn't get anything generated. Couldn't get anything going and we put put ourselves behind the 8-ball a little bit being down 11. But right back, we come in the second to cut it to four I think. They hit a big shot to push it back to seven if I recall correctly. But they do a nice job on that end of the floor."

On Lawal's injury and how much he was missed today:

"I forget exactly when [the injury] was. I don't think it was a play. He had much of the same thing on his other foot a couple of weeks ago. We were still in the preseason, we had a chance to sit him down, get it right. I think he missed three days of practice, or he's very limited in practice. Then it turns up on, I think it's his left foot now. But I do expect him back soon. He's averaging double-figure rebounds. That's a pretty big void for our team on the glass night in night out."

Q: I'm guessing you haven't seen St. Mary's in person until today. You mentioned how much you respected Randy Bennett. What are two or three reasons that you have that respect for him and did you see anything today that enhanced that?

It's been such a healthy [respect]. I don't know Randy Great. I know him to see him on the road, speak and visit briefly. But nothing surprised me. I've seen them play a lot. In anticipation of this tournament, I went back and watched probably six, seven, eight games as much to get a feel for their style as to think ahead that this day may come to fruition. He has built a program. He's been there a long time. He does it year in, year out. I've never been to Moraga, [California]. I don't think I want to go to Moraga. I have had friends of mine from back east that have played out there in various tournaments and tell me what a tough place that is to play. But he's got good players. Great admiration. Just genuine respect for Coach Bennett and his staff."

On Jaden Schutt, particularly his efforts in the second half:

"He's a good basketball player. Had a tough game a couple of nights. You know what you're going to get, he's going to play really, really hard. And he's going to have some nights when he's banging shots like he did tonight. He's good. He's a huge part of it. I've said before, I think I've got seven starters: the group that's been starting, minus Tobi today, obviously. But Ben Hammond would be in that group. Jaden Schutt would be in that group. They're all playing starters minutes and certainly value each of their contributions. But Jaden Schutt had a Jaden Schutt day. He had a great look and he was moving very well, cutting very well. He worked really hard this summer, gotten bigger and stronger. And he's moving better. Better able to take a lick and get through that cut and get to a pin down, rise up and make a shot. Awfully proud of him. He's a good one."

On the response of the frontcourt sans Lawal:

"I thought [it was] good. It's different now and certainly in a game like that with 23 [Paulius Murauskas]. And the big fella, not a great matchup. Tyler [Johnson] fought his rear end off and did a a great job playing the four offensively, which is completely different from his natural spot. We didn't spend a lot of time [there], some time with him in the summer and in our preseason practices. He will probably play as Tobi's backup at the four spot as we move along. But I thought he did a really good job there. They outrebounded us a little bit. We did have 16, 17 offensive rebounds. Our team played really hard. So did St. Mary's. It was a very good college basketball game and they got the best of us. But we look forward to coming over tomorrow and have an opportunity to compete again tomorrow."

On awaiting VCU:

"I've just seen them a little bit. I did see quite a bit of the NC State game and I was really watching it as a fan as much as anything else. I know Phil [Martelli Jr.]'s got them playing really hard. They've got a good outfit. We look forward to it. I think a lot of Coach Martelli. We look forward again to coming back over tomorrow."