Everything From Virginia Tech HC Mike Young After Boston College Win

Virginia Tech men's basketball head coach Mike Young spoke to the media after the Hokies' 72-63 victory over Boston College Tuesday evening; here's the entirety of what Young had to say:

Opening statement:

"Had to win, for obvious reasons. I'm telling you, great admiration for Earl [Grant], who I've known for a long, long, long, long, long time. I remember Earl coming into high school, Stall High School, thinking Charleston. His dad was a longtime great head coach down in the low country. Great man, great coach. And they're like a daggone chest cold. You can't get rid of them. They're tough. They hang in there. I mean, I watched them play a lot over the last couple of days. They went right down to the wire with NC State, right down to the wire with Virginia. The Virginia game is hanging in the balance, with just a minute or two to play. So, up 19, you got to put the thing away, and we don't. But we won. We look forward to our trip down 81 heading to Charlottesville on Friday, ready to compete at noon on Saturday."

On Tyler Johnson:

"ramp him up more. "Yeah, he looked more like himself today. He was tough. He was guarding the ball. He was more free today. I thought he was really searching and just a little hesitant on Saturday at North Carolina. Of course, he bangs a shot over there in the corner. I think, got a three down, which was great to see. Good to see him back on the floor. We miss a lot of the things, a lot of the intangibles that he brings to our program. And he's the best kid. He's the best and to be set back with an injury is hard to watch but here he is. He will play more on Saturday in Charlottesville. We'll need him on Saturday in Charlottesville and certainly even moreso on in the ACC Tournament."

On Boston College's 9-0 run and Young's thoughts on late-game execution:

"Well, [Tobi Lawal's] got to give the ball down to [Neoklis] Avdalas. He's tries to throw the ball, skip ahead to Ben Hammond. We did some really just not very smart basketball plays. Sloppy basketball just drives me nuts. And Ben is so good. We're up 12, 14, 15, and Ben tries to do something he shouldn't do, and he turns it over. Neo misses a layup. Again, we had to find a way to win. We did that."

On nearly half the team's shots coming from three-point range:

"I'll talk to them. I'm not being critical. They're just playing. I don't want them looking over their shoulder at me. I've never coached that way. When they go in the air, I never want them thinking, 'Does this guy think this is a good shot or a bad shot?' You play. I'll take the misses. You take the makes. Hansberry had a three over here going down the stretch, probably should have turned [that] down and gotten another one. Tobi took a three over there not long after; that one, that we should have turned down. Get back to the top, and let's run something. Both those kids played great basketball, as they typically do night in, night out. Just a bit of a slugfest there for a little bit. But we figured it out. Proud of them."

On if the NCAA Tournament lingers in Young's mind:

"No, I'm thinking about spring break. I'm thinking about going to Islamorada with my beautiful wife this spring. It occupies a lot of thought. What do we need to do? We need to go down to Charlottesville and play a really good ballgame, that would help. They're really good. [Editor's note: Young asked what the final score of the Virginia-Wake Forest game was. The team's sports information director Carter Brown responded that it was a five-point game in favor of Virginia.] We got to go to Charlotte, we got to play good basketball. We got to keep going. Yeah, I think about it a lot."

On Virginia Tech missing the intangibles without Tyler Johnson:

Toughness, physicality, and we had two 50/50 balls. I've got a ball right there between Mark [Berman] and myself, and he's got as much a chance to get that ball as I do, and we've got to have that ball. We had two of them in the first half. One, we didn't get either one of them. He gets them. He gets them. It's like those wrecking cars when you were a kid. Just boom, and body parts fall over the place. That's him going after a 50/50 ball. He is relentless in his pursuit of that ball, his rebounding, his attention to detail on the defensive end. He has come so far. And his assist-turnover [ratio] last year was ugly. His assist turnover this year was very good before going down. I don't know that I like the expression, glue guy. He is a glue guy. He keeps it all together. He's really almost overboard on the floor at times when somebody's not doing what they're supposed to be [doing]. But that's needed, that internal leadership on the floor, when I can't get my hands around them. It is welcomed and needed, and he doesn't shy away from it."

On what about Boston College's defense allowed them to hang around:

"Just nasty. And I say that admirably, I don't say that, there's nothing dirty about Boston College. They are physical, they're scrappy. They are top 65 I think, in the country defensively. Earl's always been a really good defensive coach when he's at Charleston, when he was in his time at BC. They don't go away. They just fight. They just fight. Down 19, they hit a couple of shots, and they're up six. They just keep going. See it every game. Again. I reference the UVA game. Whenever UVA looked like they were going to take off, here [Boston College comes] right back. With a timely shot, with a defensive stop, they're a lot better than the record would indicate."

On Avdalas' 4-for-5 start:

"He was really good. It was really good. Looked like looked like himself. I thought he had a good ball game. I thought he played very well, picking his spots. He's going to make the right basketball play. Just had a good look about him to play good ball."

On Lawal's second half and what enabled his effectiveness:

"He's just so damn athletic. [Jayden] Hastings is a big kid, and saw something as the game was going on. We drew up a duck-in for Toby down there, lo and behold, he catches it and scores it with ease. He just gets up over the pack at times and scores, scores that ball. Snares an offensive rebound. I've seen it time and time and time again in his two years with us, with 20 points today and seven rebounds. A really good stat line for Tobi. Surprised, he had four turnovers. He's got to do a better job of that, and he knows that."

On if Young dwells on what might have been given that Virginia Tech lost three games without Lawal:

"No, I mean, yeah, certainly, but you know, again, it's a part of it. I'm not going to belabor that Virginia lost Jacari white for a period of time. We all lose good players. We all have that moment during the season. Typically, I've had some years now, really good teams that nobody went down and just luck. There's not an asterisk beside it. You got to lace them up, and you got to go play and find a way to win. And we kicked a couple without him that we'd like to have back. But that's not how the game rolls."

On Tech's stout defensive execution early:

"We're in great spots. We were electric in our gaps. We were connected. Played like a fist. Fve guys and a fist playing, playing together, physical box outs, and we let some go in the second half, which is a real no-no when you're trying to extend, extend your lead, but we were really good in the first half."

On if there's anything that Virginia Tech can take from the Dec. 31 matchup vs. UVa and apply to Saturday:

"I don't know the answer to that yet. I saw the replay of our game that night. It was a noon game. I watched the replay tonight. I see them. And I don't want to sound, you know, like I'm avoiding the question, of course, I see them a lot. But you watch them against NC State. You watch them against Boston College Sunday, you watch them. Watch them a lot, but you're watching the other team, it's UVA. So I do pay particular attention to their scores. They're having a really good year. They're really, really good. Surprised by the Duke score. I thought that was going to be a great game, but Duke is just playing such great basketball right now. I don't know. I don't know the answer that I'll know. I'll have some more ideas tonight about 2 a.m., but we look forward to getting down there. Love that arena. Good friends down there, should be a whale of a college basketball game. We look forward to being a part of it."