Everything From Virginia Tech HC Mike Young After Triple OT Win Over No. 21 Virginia

Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young spoke to the media following the Hokies' contest vs. No. 21 Virginia; here's the entirety of what Young had to say:

Opening statement:

"These are classmates of my daughter at Sewanee, the University of the South."

[Editor's note: Young then remarked to 3304 Sports' Lucas Harrison, "Man, you're anxious, relax." Harrison, who had his hand up, responded with "Hey man, I got a lot of questions. Young then asked if David Teel was present, saying the following: "Appreciate the article day before yesterday. It was good."

"It was good. They've got a really, really good basketball team and we knew it going in. We knew it was going to be hard, really hard. Saw them play a lot. Saw them play Texas in Austin. Not Texas Arlington, the Longhorns. And they wore them, I mean, wore them out. Beat a good Northwestern team. [Coach Ryan Odom's] got a good team. They're going to go on and win a lot of games. Jacari White being down hurts them. I saw Jacari make seven threes in a game. I forget who it was. They're all running together. [Editor's note: It was Dayton and Charlotte.] And we've got our own issues in that regard with [Tobi Lawal, Tyler Johnson and Antonio Dorn] down. Our team did some great things. We did some really bad things that we will learn from. But great win. And I'm really, really proud of our team and we're probably not going to do a whole lot tomorrow. But we will begin our preparation for the Demon Deacons, and we'll look forward to getting Winston Salem and ready to compete again Saturday at noon."

On Ben Hammond's 30-point performance:

"Oh my gosh. He was awesome. He's cramping unlike any young man I've coached in the locker room right now. He was exceptional. What didn't I see? What didn't I see? [Editor's note: Young was laughing.] And it was both ends of the floor. He created havoc for the Cavaliers down there with a couple of things. He missed one. The three that Dallin [Hall] banked in. I think Ben went after one and a one that you got to get. If you don't, that thing's going to spray over here for a made three and that's what happened. Didn't expect it to be banked. That was a bit unfortunate, but that's the way it went down. Ben Hammond was the best player on the floor today. How could you dispute that? Really proud of Ben."

On the team's offensive rebounding (20 offensive boards):

"We didn't say anything at all about it. All right. We just let that one slide after the Elon game. UVA is [third] in the country in and grabbing their own misses. Third. Thanks, David. Their offensive efficiency numbers are overwhelming, like scary. Now you watch him play and here's [Thijs de Ridder] and [Johann Grünloh], [Malik Thomas and Sam Lewis]. They got good-looking young people. Devin Tillis is a big kid. We rebounded great. Here's Christian Gurdak. Here's a kid playing his 13th college game from Gonzaga in DC. And this guy comes in here and corralled 19 rebounds. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? [Amani] Hansberry was awesome."

Q: Hey Coach, what was kind of your approach navigating your lineups with those injuries that you touched on?

"Very carefully. And I'm still trying to manage it. I didn't want to play Amani Hansberry 50 minutes. I didn't want to do that. But that's the best opportunity we've got to win. And some of the others, [Jailen] Bedford came in and helped our team tonight. Izaiah Pasha. I just think, certainly when it gets to crunch time, when it gets down the stretch, you got to play those that give you the best opportunity to win. That's my role. Sin Jones helped us in some spots. He fought, he competed and proud of them again to get out of here with the win."

On the importance of holding UVa to five transition points and 13 second-chance points:

"Immense. Talk to somebody. Not great secrets. And not going to share who it was, but he said, 'You've seen all the film you're going to see. You can't appreciate on film how hard they come at you'. With Hall and [Chance] Mallory and their ability to space the floor with those guys and ring you up. That was a big part of it. The three biggest keys for us coming into the game was rebound. We have to take care of the ball. I'm a little surprised we had 14 turnovers on 12 assists. And you got to take away the arc. You've got to take away the arc. And we did that all in all. It's a three-overtime game. They made 10. I think they were at three at the end of the first half. I thought we did an exceptional job there. And Ben Hammond shot more foul shots. Ben made more foul shots than UVA took. Sign me up. I'm good. I thought they were all great calls, too."

Q: In terms of Amani and Christian [Gurdak] and the interior defense that they played against some really good post players, how would you evaluate just the way you were able to kind of run them off inside?

"Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. And that's a load. They're deeper than we are. Coach Odom is playing Tillis some at the four and that was a little heartburn. Tillis is a good player, but De Ridder and Grünloh are good. And here comes 33 [Ugonna Oyenso]. They're both capable. 17 [Grünloh] and 33 [Onyenso] are both capable of stepping out and shoot. It's not what they do great. But they didn't get one of those tonight. We were going to hold on and make them make a couple. But we're thin as nickel soup right now. We're going to be whole here pretty soon though, fellas. We're going to be whole here pretty soon and that will make us better."

On Gurdak (17 points, 19 rebounds in second career start):

"He made a couple of mistakes. He went right at Grünloh on one and Grünloh blocked it with his elbow. He's like come on. And we talked about not going over them. You're not. Those are two good shot blockers. Go through them or go here or spray the thing back on the [perimeter]. But that kid's super smart, Christian. He's super smart and he's unselfish and he is all about doing what our team needs to win. And that's a pretty good formula for an 18-year-old playing his 13th college game in an unbelievable atmosphere here in the Cassell. He's a great person, a great kid to coach and was really, really good today."

On what the perseverance tells Young about his crew:

"They don't surprise me anymore. It was a great win. We got a lot more to go here. We got 17 more in the regular season. Wake Forest on Saturday, Cal and Stanford coming to town, at SMU. Notre Dame at home. The hits keep on coming. It doesn't slow down. Um, but uh a great way to kick things off. I say again, my complete admiration for their team. And what a quality win that is for my team."

On Tech's ability to compete against high-caliber outfits:

"We're Virginia Tech. We are Virginia Tech. That's what we do. All right. Great admiration for them. But damnit, I got a good basketball team, too. All right. And I'm not going to shy away from that."

Q: If you could comment on two things about Hammond. No. 1, no turnovers in in 40 plus minutes. And then Ben Hammond: shot blocker?

"He was geared up. He had a tip in too. He's 5-foot-3 [Editor's note: Hammond is 5-foot-11] and tips the damn ball in which was an unbelievable an incredibly important play for us. I've seen a lot of great performances in 40 years of coaching, a bunch of them from great players. Ben Hammond is a great player. His effort, his level of preparedness coming into the game and how we were going to guard things. There's not always a great matchup against UVA. Dalln Hall is not a great matchup, but man, he fights. He just fights and he's a starter for us. I haven't started him [much]. I think Mallory's a starter for them if I could make a comparison. But I assure you this, Ben Hammond's going to play a lot and he's going to play a lot when it matters. That's not going to change as long as he's in a Hokie uniform and I hope that's for a long time more."