Everything From Virginia Tech HC Mike Young After Victory Over Western Carolina

On Avdalas scoring 24 points in the second half:

"Got to guard better. All right. He scored well, but has to defend better. They all do."

On Amani Hansberry, who tallied 18 points:

"I told you the last time we were in here, there's nothing he does that I don't like. He may have a defensive lapse. He may turn it over. He turned over three times tonight. But he does so many things to help our team. He covers up others' mistakes and there were plenty of them out there tonight. Had six assists. He's going to rebound. He's not going to take a bad shot. He is a terrific young person to coach and I've said it before, I'm thrilled he's in a Hokie uniform."

On Tech's defense forcing 11 turnovers:

"I'm not sure so much our defense as their poor ball handling in the first half. I thought they did a better job in the uh in the second. But we're 11 games in now, fellas. We've got to get better on that end. We're still not rebounding to the level that we need to. And it's going to cost us. Lacking physicality, lacking toughness on the glass has got to come on. I mean, it's just got to come on. It's got to come on across the board. [Antonio] Dorn did have four offensive rebounds. [Christian] Gurdak had three. We had 11. But uh we got to we got to get better there."

On Hansberry's six assists and how his facilitation makes the offense successful:

"He's the best connector I've had in 24 years as a head coach. If you can just get him the ball in the low post or in the high post, he'll connect it. He'll find an action over there. Dribble handoff, zoom, that is going to put our better players in the action. Our best two, three players. He's got an eighth sense on how it's supposed to work and go and it's interesting to watch develop as we move along."

On what Young liked about how his team handled Western Carolina's aggressive style of play:

"Pretty good. 11 turnovers for us, which is a bit high. We're second in the nation coming in at turnovers per game. OK. We usually have more assists than uh than that. We had some beautiful passing that we didn't make the shot. But I thought we handled that part of it OK."

Q: Most points for Neo since the Providence game. What were you seeing today to explain how he was able to score 30 points?

"They had a hard matchup with him. They weren't very big. But he got a couple of shots down and he's practiced well. He was good tonight."

On Tech's 13 made three-pointers:

"This team has shot the ball well. Tyler Johnson continues to shoot the ball well. Our shot selection overall has been good. Neo made four. Amani had two in the first half that were huge. He's a really good shooter. I thought the third one in the second half was going down. He didn't get it. Ben [Hammond] has shot the ball well for us. Had two down tonight. Schutt was not ripping and tearing like uh like he has been, but still really good."

On Avdalas being 9-for-13 and whether Young notices a look in his eye that he's taking over offensively:

"I'm not sure what kind of look I'm looking for, he had a good feel for it. His shot selection was good. Tried to put him in the post a little bit. Ran something for him to start the game. Forget the outcome of it. He was very, very good on the offensive end tonight. uh Hanssbury uh helps there, but he had some plays that uh just, you know, a big league player uh making a good basketball play. Last two quick real quick relatively even split in terms of from the field and from deep. What did you like about your inside out balance today? I didn't think uh I thought it was okay. I thought it was okay. Um uh fellas, I we've got to play better. All right. We we got to play better. Uh we've got to um uh put a bigger emphasis on the defensive end and on uh on the glass. Uh that will win games in our league. And that league is coming. It's coming quick. Uh one more real quick. You touched on Tyler Johnson. How has he bounced back from that South Carolina game where he didn't score and fouled out? Good. said he was terrific against George Mason. He was terrific. Um he had zero rebounds at the uh at the half. Um he's getting bogged down with with some stuff that and he's got a he's the most mature, smart, conscientious kid as as mature and conscientious as any kid we've uh we've got. Uh but I thought had a had a good second half. Mark, uh you've got two games left before you start play. Do you have a game in mind? Toby might be back. No. Thanks, guys.