Virginia Tech men's basketball head coach Mike Young spoke to the media following the Hokies' 82-81 overtime victory over Elon.
to the media following the Hokies' 82-81 overtime victory over Elon; here's the entirety of what Young had to say: It's one of those uh one of those days. Uh come to shoot around. Neo was complaining about uh not feeling great yesterday, but um oh gosh, come to shoot around this morning and he can't do it.
um saw uh saw our uh uh doctor, team doctor, and um was uh was sick and and uh sent him home. He wasn't in the building. Uh Dorne's got uh back that is making progress or so it appears certainly Toby. Toby's getting closer. Um we just got a lot of stuff going on. Hanssbury fouls out. Tyler Johnson, you know, has a foot injury there in the uh in the overtime period, but Isaiah Posh had an opportunity to play and help our team win and that he did. Christian Gerak thrust into a a very prominent role. Um and uh and helped our team win. Christian played 28 minutes, grabbed six rebounds. Um you know, uh Ben Hammond's terrific. Tyler Johnson did a really, really nice job. didn't have as many rebounds as I thought he would have. Um, we just had to find a way to win and I knew going in that they were good. I was nervous about it. Uh, and I'm proud of our uh proud of our team. Find ourselves down 19. We can't get anything going. Cut it to eight was significant. Um, and uh, an inch by inch. Seven and six are good players on the front line. They're difficult matchups. I don't have a matchup for Gerach with uh, with that lineup. I thought he fought and did a good job with with seven. Um it's a hard match up for Romani. Consequently, he's got, you know, he saddled with fouls throughout throughout the game. So, enough of that. We get to the break, 11-2. Uh we got 18 head knockers in league play coming right at us with UVA obviously uh December 31st uh in uh in the castle. >>Starting the right, Thomas, >>you talked about trailing by 19. What was the switch that sort of flipped? >>Um, we got a couple of balls knocked down. We had a couple of turnovers. Uh, the castle got, you know, in an uproar. Uh, and I think, uh, in turn, our team got in an uproar and we started guarding. They didn't feel us at all in the first 10 minutes, 12 minutes, but they felt us. Um, they certainly felt us in uh, in the overtime period. in the second half. Um they only shot 11 foul shots, which is big. They they shoot a lot of fouls. Seven uh Cthrell um has shot 97 foul shots. Our highest foul shot attempt person is Ammani with 47. He is fouled all the time. Uh so great job from uh from our team and um we just again we we had to find a way to win the game. Uh, however, we we get there. Yeah, that's our third overtime game. We've won all three. Go ahead. >>Uh, great win tonight, coach. >>Um, Elon, they started seven for 17 in the first half from three and then after that, they only had three makes on 14 attempt or sorry, 13 attempts. What were you guys doing to shut down that three ball? It's amazing what happens when you pressure the ball and you play with high hands and you're there on the catch and and you put them in dur rest and they're not as comfortable and that ball's not moving from uh from side to side. Uh and that's what they all did collectively in the second half. >>Coach, what was Isaac Herrell doing so well on offense to in the first half there? >>Making a bunch of damn shots. I know that. Um he's a good player. we knew it going in and he was u you know a prominent person on uh their scouting report for uh for us. Um I thought we finally got the right matchup on him. We had some guys go nose tonose with him. Didn't offer a whole lot of help uh and did uh did a better job on it. >>Over here. Sorry, Mark. Uh Mike, the fact that you were able to win without players that were not able to play and the fact that you're able to win despite being big down by 19 points in the first half. What does that tell you about this team? Maybe the depth of >>uh this team's got a lot to them, Mark. Um uh high character people, they care. Uh they want to play the right way. They want to share the ball. Um you know, Neo not being here contributes to 13 turnovers. um you know and he does such a remarkable job at cracking the defense and putting the ball you know in uh in different places. We missed that. We missed a lot of things from uh his absence. But uh but again, take nothing away from the kids that uh that stepped on the floor and competed. Um, I knew going in we had high character people that uh it matters to them want to play great basketball for Virginia Tech and that was clearly evident uh this afternoon you know uh in uh in our home >>falling behind by 19. Was that due to you know missing players and trying to figure out about that or was it just defense wasn't >>they played well they played well they played a good basketball game. Uh they've got good players. You know, I saw a bunch of games. Uh saw them, you know, beat Richmond a couple nights ago. Um saw have Kevin Gilner down 50 to 15 at the half. I saw him have Dustin Karn's one of the best assistant coaches I've ever had. I mean, you talking about taking a man behind the woodshed and pulling his pants down, ripping his rear end. They did that to both those guys. So, I watched those early in the week after uh our Sunday game with UMES and um it had my attention and I think we had our team's attention uh you know going uh going into it. It was not no nothing remotely close to overlooking Elon getting into the break league play all that stuff. Uh we had to win. We did it. It's all that matters. You had some young guys, Christian sincere in down the stretch. What was your message to them? Was it simply just find a way to win? >>I don't know. I don't know there's any message, David. You know, uh play the way you practice, fight, compete, adhere to the things that uh that are important to us. You know, there's no, you know, uh pump them up, you know, rahrh stuff. Here it is. Uh next man up, go play. Uh rebound, defend. don't turn the damn ball over. And uh I thought all in all they uh they did uh they did that quite quite well >>defensively. Was there was it just being more physical, more aggressive after the first half? >>Yeah. Yeah. Uh nothing nothing more than that. Um again, they were very comfortable. Uh consequently, um we're on our heels and they're banging shots left and right. I think I said if I didn't if I did, pardon me for being redundant. Um they missed 15 shots in the first half at one point maybe for the half and they had grabbed eight of those uh offensive rebounds which is staggering. I mean just unconscionable. Um, and you know, it's amazing, fellas, uh, the game, the game and and my time, 40 years. Um, I haven't seen any of UVA at all. We'll see a bunch of it here in the next, uh, 10 days. Uh, but UVA really shoots the ball well, and they're, uh, way up in the country in grabbing their own misses. All right, like 42% of their misses. Uh Elon does the same thing. Elon sends five guys to the offensive glass. Um uh didn't pass uh very well in that uh in that area today. We'll have to be a lot better than that against the Cavaliers on December 31st. All right, one more and I'm out of here. >>Coach, walk me through that final scoring sequence where Gerdak got the bucket. What did you see there? >>Um I tell you what, Thomas, there a lot of plays I I I don't have a very clear recollection. I thought Isaiah Pasha did a great job. He could have been fouled. I thought Isaiah Posasha did a great job in contesting that ball um out of timeouts. Uh they've got uh seven who can go the distance with it. They've got six. That's what they tried to do in the end of regulation. Um you know, you're all over the place. Great job from Isaiah getting the top of his jump and blocking the bottom of the ball. You want one more? Uh now that as you're headed to AC play, what is what have you learned about your team from this non-conference portion of the >>uh you know I think we come out of it uh in pretty good shape. Wish we could have played better against St. Mary's and uh and VCU. Um we're in position to be in position. Let's put it that way. And uh we look forward to getting them back December 26th and getting back on the floor and getting uh getting better. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. All right. To uh all of you. I wish you well.Thomas is a sophomore at Virginia Tech majoring in multimedia journalism with a minor in creative writing. He currently works with Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech's student-run newspaper, as a staff writer for its sports section. In addition, he also writes for 3304 Sports as a staff writer and on-air talent, as well as Aspiring Journalists at Virginia Tech as a curator. You can find him on X: @thomashughes_05.Men's Basketball Muscles By Maryland Eastern Shore For 10th Win
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