Everything From Virginia Tech Men's Basketball Head Coach Mike Young On Tuesday

Virginia Tech men's basketball head coach Mike Young spoke to the media on Tuesday; here's the entirety of what he had to say.

Opening Statement:

"Everybody, good to be practicing again. Good to be back in Hanh Hurst [the Hokies' practice facility] and another season underway. Really like our team. Really like our team. We probably practiced 35 times this summer. Gave them a little time off as they got back to campus. We're 42 days away from playing. You've got 30 practice opportunities in that 42 days. Yesterday was No. 1. We're healthy. Jaden Schutt and [Neoklis Avdalas] are coming back from minor stuff. They'll be full go I expect by the end of the week. So, enough for me. You guys go ahead."

On Virginia Tech assistant coach Kevin Giltner heading to Wofford:

"I'm thrilled for him. I'm thrilled for Wofford. He's a really good player for me and he played in Iceland for a year and I gave him his first job the next year. When we first caught wind of it last week, he came in, he was hesitant. We got a really good team. I love being here. And I said to him, 'Hey pal, these are hard. They're impossible to get. And if you've got a chance to get this one or any job, you've got to go." We went down and practiced. We came back and and he was ready, full go and it worked out. Timing is obviously terrible. You know what, David, that's part of it. We'll figure that part of it out. But he's got an opportunity to go back to his alma mater, a city and a college that he loves, and that's home for him and his wife Katelyn. And we were together a long time. But I am thrilled for Kevin. And again, I'm thrilled for Wofford. They got a really good coach."

Q: You guys have spent so much time together over the years. What makes you know that he will be a great coach?

"He understands the place. He's really grown as a coach. I found myself relying on him more and more and him coming with me here was very helpful. He was involved with a couple of jobs the last couple of springs and I thought it was a matter of time before he got an opportunity. And here we are. And, you know, the start of practice but when one [opportunity] presents itself, that makes sense that you can get, you better jump at it. And he did and he'll do a great job."

On Chester Frazier and why Young targeted him:

"He was on our first staff, as you recall. I didn't know Chester. He was with Coach [Bruce] Weber at Kansas State. I've had a bunch of really good [coaches]. He's as good as I've had. He is a very, very good coach. He's a basketball man. It's a story in how we got there. I drove to Morgantown to see him unannounced and asked him to come back. I didn't realize the utter disdain Illinois people have for Indiana. He said, 'I'm not going to Bloomington.' So, we were able to get him back and on that same staff was Nelson Hernandez. So, I drove across town. If you hadn't been to Morgantown recently, haven't missed anything, trust me. Drove across town to see Nelson. We're fortunate enough to get him back. But Chester's awesome. Such unbelievable energy and passion and he's a great coach."

On Young's impressions now that everyone's on campus:

"Work in progress. It was a tad choppy, as Neo was playing for his national team in the under-20 world games in Greece, as a matter of fact. So, we knew that we weren't going to get him here before the third week of July, maybe even the last week of July. We probably practiced with Neo and the whole unit, [Antonio] Dorn got here early July. Probably had the whole unit here together for 10 to 12 practices late summer, which was a big deal. And then we continued those practices throughout the month of September. I gave them three days off last week. And we're all dealing with it... [Editor's note: Young referenced nine new players; there are ten newcomers to this year's roster.] That takes some work. We're not going as long in the summer and the continuation of the summer practices into September. But we're ramping it up now to two [hours], 2:15 and I do think we've got ample time to get it all in a good place heading into the start of season. That's only going to improve as we go along."

On shooting and whether Young feels it's in a better place:

"About the same place. Yeah, I've got really good players. I've done it throughout my career with a number of guys that could really shoot it. We shoot the ball well. I don't think it's going to be an Achilles' heel. We don't knock the bottom out of it like some teams that that I've had. I said the other day, we're going to have some games when we make 12 [threes]. We're going to have some games [that] we make six. But defensively, in other areas, we're going to be much improved. And I don't have a lot of heartburn about it.

On how Young feels about his staff:

"Great. J.D. Byers is a really good basketball coach. Chester, we've talked about. And those other guys are doing a really nice job. I am very, very excited about the staff that that we have in place, the operation as a whole, with Stephanie [Ballein] and Ace {Custis] and others. I've got a really good staff and that's essential in this day and age."

On the returners — Ben Hammond, Tyler Johnson, Tobi Lawal and Jaden Schutt:

"We really, really wanted to keep Schutt, Ben Hammond, Tyler Johnson and Tobi. We're fortunate enough to do that. Those four guys are good players. They're going to be better with better players around them. And those guys, that experience, when you're playing Tyler and Ben together so as much as I did a year ago, [it] was hard to see, but I knew every rep that they got over the course of last year would would benefit them greatly as we move ahead. And they had a really good spring, summer, fall. They're playing really good basketball. I expect probably two, maybe three of those guys to be in our starting lineup. That's going to continue to work its way out as we move along. But they're doing very well. You know how much I enjoy coaching them and all four of those guys are going to be key contributors to this team."

On biggest improvement from a year ago:

"We just move better. We move better. This is a long team. Now, Amani, who's really, really good, and I don't think I've mentioned him yet. Amani Hansberry is a a really good basketball player. We could talk about connector, an offensive connector, which is very important. If that connector is your five, it's hard to switch with five onto a a guard a lot of times. When your connector is your five, that lends itself to some things offensively that can be really, really hard to guard. So, we're just getting into it. The nuts and bolts of it, we're covered through the uh through the summer."

On chemistry in the backcourt and how they'll work together:

"Well, I was going to mention our our length. Neo's 6'9. Tobi's 6'8, 6'9. Amani is 6'7, 6'8, long arms and plays long. Just so much more versatility than uh than I've had in recent uh memory. Again, I go back to, we're not the Lone Ranger here and the number of new people we have. When you talk about a ball, a ball requires timing. It requires precision. It requires excellent cutting and passing. And all that takes some time. I'm very happy. We all are with where we are right now. We still have a lot of work to do and I'm sure everybody's out there saying the same thing."

On whether Young feels he has two and a half point guards:

"When Neo visited, his dad is a delightful man. Played professionally in Greece for a long time. A delightful man. And we're talking about two-guard, small forward, point guard. And the dad said, 'He's a playmaker.' And he is a playmaker. He's also got a lot of point guard skill set in him. So, we've got Ben Hammond who's really playing well. Izaiah Pasha, transfer from Delaware who's playing good basketball, and Neo. I think I've got three. Not two and a half, three. And I think if that's the biggest problem I've got, I'm okay. Avdalas and his ability to see over things. that's the best part of his game, I think is his passing. He is an elite passer and a willing passer. If anything through the 20 practices we've had with him, I've found myself encouraging him to shoot more than any other part of his game. He's defending well. He's very capable. He and Dorn played professional basketball for a long time now. They've seen a lot of plays. And they've been very, very well coached and understand. I thought, dropping Mike Young off in Homburg [a city in Germany] and I've got to make a go of it, going to college and their grasp of of the language and the ins and outs of the game is quite remarkable. Very, very impressive."

On Jailen Bedford:

"I like him a lot, David. He's our best on-ball defender, which will get him on the floor a lot. He just celebrated his 29th birthday. I say that tongue-in-cheek. He's 23, junior college to Oral Roberts to uh to UNLV where he played for Kevin [Kruger], who's a really good coach. Jailen Bedford's a good shooter. We need for him to make catch-and-shoot threes. He is a dynamic [player] with the ball, [he'll] overbounce it a little bit from time to time. But man, he's a joy to coach and he will play a lot for this team. He's a good player."

S: When you talk about defense, him and Tyler Johnson together, I feel like that's probably a pretty good combination.

"Again, I mentioned our versatility, we've got a lot of that. Ben Hammond is doing a a really good job and just so much bigger and stronger. Izaiah Pasha is a good-looking young man at 6'5, probably 205. So, we've got uh better pieces in that regard."

On Board of Visitors resolution for Sept. 30:

"Incredibly excited. Beyond that, let [athletic director Whit Babcock and president Tim Sands] answer any of those questions, but great things happening at Virginia Tech and all of us are just as excited as we can be."

Q: And then have have you decided whether you will promote from within or hire from outside to replace Kevin?

"Not completely. I do think I've got to do what's right by this team. I've got a good team. We're excited about this team. Who can we bring in here or elevate here that will keep the train rolling? And we're well on our way to doing that. Could possibly have something in place by this afternoon, tomorrow, Thursday at the latest. Again, this started rolling last week, well before anybody was uh aware. Of course, I spent 30 years down there. Know the president well and had a conversation with him, know the AD pretty well. My wife's on the board of trustees, so I got some familiarity. I've got some familiarity with the place. I've got some insider knowledge that maybe some others don't have. So, in supporting Kevin, we have to do what's best for Virginia Tech and have possibly hopefully something tee'd up in the event that that it works. And it worked."

On 20 to 22 overseas players coming to the ACC and whether the numbers will continue at that rate:

"They're going to. I'm not knocking grassroots basketball at all. Our youth structure is quite good. Theirs is really good, just in terms of teaching, just in terms of skill development. It's going to continue. We're going to do more. We're going to put an even greater emphasis on it. We're going to do everything we can here. Nothing's easy. Neo was hard. But I like the agents that we deal with over there. Antonio Dorn is a 22-year-old sophomore. Avdalas has played a lot of professional basketball, He's a 19-year-old freshman. So, it's going to increase. It's not going to stay the same or decrease, I'm certain of it. We've got some really good players over there. And a lot of times, very skilled, can really shoot the ball and really pass it. And not all of them, but for the majority, high basketball IQ people."

On how Young feels about the frontcourt depthwise:

"Good. Versatility for a third time. If I started today, I would start Amani and Tobi together. I can move Dorn to the five, I can move Amani to the four. I can play Toby at the five a little bit. I can move Tyler Johnson to the four a little bit. But Tobi Lawal is going to play a lot of minutes. Hansberry is going to play a lot of minutes. Christian Gurdak is doing a nice job for us. Young man from Gonzaga and in DC. Sin'Cere Jones from Churchland High School, down on the coast, [he's] had some really good moments and is going to be a very good player around here. Just needs to see more plays. So, I couldn't feel better about our depth across the board, honestly. But to your question in the frontcourt, feel really good about it."

On Ben Hammond and his development:

"Well, just growing pains out of him and he had a really good freshman year. Just better, stronger, playing the spot better. He'll play with Avdalas quite a bit. I have played with two point guards on the floor at the same time often. I never thought there's anything wrong with that. You got two ball handlers and two guys that can distribute and make others better. You'll see a number of lineups like that. Pasha included."