NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - VIRGINIA TECH VS FLORIDA

March 19, 2021

Mike Young

Virginia Tech Hokies

Hinkle Fieldhouse

Postgame Media Conference

Florida 75, Virginia Tech 70

MIKE YOUNG: Hats off to Coach White's Florida Gator team. Sometimes in this business, what you think you're going to see and how things are going to play out in terms of pace, in terms of either end of the floor isn't exactly what you get. This has been a really good Virginia Tech rebounding team, and Castleton and Duruji - pardon the pronunciation if I'm wrong - they out-rebounded us by a pretty good clip. And just couldn't get stops. Up eight, we miss a lay-up, they score.

We're where we want to be, in good shape, didn't handle some things very well but I thought Florida played awfully well, and they won, they advance, we go back to Blacksburg and that's hard to swallow.

Q. Florida shot 57 percent for the game. That may be the highest against the Hokies this season. Just defensively -- they hit some tough shots, though, correct?

MIKE YOUNG: They did. They did. Such a ball screen heavy team with Mann, and he's really good, and I thought we've done -- they had 27 points at the half. I thought we were in great shape. They had turned it over nine times, were up whatever we were up, six. I thought we guarded really well.

The pace that we were looking for, everything was in place.

We didn't load to the ball a couple of times and then one thing led to another. Tried to tweak it a little bit, and they were just a little bit better in that area than we were when it mattered most, unfortunately.

Q. I know it's not the result you wanted but could you speak to Nahiem's play, his scoring, and that last three he hit to send you to overtime?

MIKE YOUNG: You know, I mean, he's had a great year, another one. I think of Cattoor and I think of all these guys and what they put together over the long haul, and to do it on this stage, to do it against the Florida Gators, he was terrific. He had a great look and a great bounce about him. I thought he was really, really good on the lock. He was matched with Scottie Lewis a couple of times. Just a whale of a performance. Awfully proud of him.

The shot he hit to send it to overtime, my goodness, we were lucky to get two missed fouls from Duruji, and here it comes, and he bangs that thing and gets it to overtime. Wish we could have done more with it.

Q. Did Florida do certain things defensively in the second half and overtime to make it a tougher shooting day for you than it was in the first half?

MIKE YOUNG: Well, they're a good defensive team, long, and Castleton is a good shot blocker. They've got good length. Scottie Lewis is really -- he's a tenacious defender, and Tre Mann with -- Tre is a 6'5" guy. I don't think there's anything different than what we had seen in the past. They did a nice job with it.

Q. Are you the kind of guy where you go home saying, hey, we lost in overtime, we left it all on the line, I can live with losing in the NCAA Tournament like that? Or are you the kind of guy that will kind of toss and turn and think if we'd have done this a little better, that a little better, we'd have had a W?

MIKE YOUNG: Well, I don't know that anybody is satisfied with getting here. Getting here is a significant achievement and one that we're proud of, but I had a really good team that I thought could advance and move along, and we didn't today, and that's frustrating.

We'll seethe over that for a while, but at some point soon we'll turn our attention to what a remarkable team and group of people this was to coach. They were a team, and I'm proud of each of those guys. They gave us everything they had today. Came up on the short end of it, unfortunately, but it was not due to a lack of effort. I certainly am aware of that.

Q. Obviously the impact of Keve and Justin out early in the overtime, how does that kind of affect you? Obviously two huge players not available --

MIKE YOUNG: Yeah. You know, so many things you're trying to manage and take care of. Needless to say, those guys are so critical for us. I look back, maybe could have gotten Keve to the under four, or under four in the overtime. I typically don't start people that had four fouls going into the overtime in an effort to steal a minute, minute and a half and get to the stretch, but I chose not to, and that was a poor choice on my part.

Q. Castleton had four points with less than 10 and a half minutes left in the game and then ends up with 19 and 14 boards. You mentioned him on the defensive end and how big he was in terms of altering shots. Did they do something to get him the ball more?

MIKE YOUNG: Yeah, we were really getting strung out, intentionally, because Mann is so good coming off that ball screen, but he's much more of a scoring point guard than he is a pass-out-of-it kind of point guard. I think that Coach White made him look back, and now we've got the primary defender really stretched out over here when we X'd with the other big. We had some issues with that. They just made a -- it was obviously a conscious effort to get the thing back to the other side, that's a long closeout for us, and we had a hard time with it. He's a talented kid. He really is.

Q. With Bede being in foul trouble you had to go to Tyrece a lot on Mann, and he looked also to be very effective defensively, as was Cattoor at times. For the most part, Mann only got nine shots; good defense on him?

MIKE YOUNG: Yeah, I am flabbergasted that we allowed 56 percent from the field for the game. One of those odd numbers that is just inexplicable. My team did exactly what we asked them to do. Now, we're playing against really good players, as we do night in and night out in the ACC and certainly you know you're going to play somebody good in the NCAA Tournament. Florida is very good. But I just -- you know, I'll be curious and I'll see it tonight, and I'll be curious what went wrong, what should we have done other than this.

But again, I certainly give a big credit to Florida. They played well.

Q. Big picture, a year ago you talked about wanting to add size and experience. What do you think your program still needs or where do you think of where you are?

MIKE YOUNG: I think right now we only have one to get. I would like to have another post player. I'd like to be able to move Keve to the 4 quite a bit more. Certainly Justin Mutts -- Mutts and Aluma, we'll see how things play out. Mutts and Aluma on the front line. It was a really good one, but to add another body that can play, that can rebound the ball and do the things that we ask our post players to do, I think that's very important to us. David N'Guessan's development here this spring and summer, he's going to take a real leap for us. John Ojiako, still kind of coming back from that knee, but excited about his future.

You know, that's our plan right now. I don't expect to lose anyone. I hope like crazy I don't lose anyone. I think so much of the young people in our program.

Q. Obviously this one just ended and I'm sure you're still digesting, but how much are you going to use this one as fuel this off-season?

MIKE YOUNG: Well, you know, a lot. We have a chance to have a very good team a year from now. George Allen, the old coach of the Washington Redskins, said, "The future is now." The future is now. I'm so disappointed that we lost today, terribly disappointed. But we'll bounce back. We'll have a good spring and hope like crazy there are healthier times around the corner for all of us.

If I may, before we leave, I'd like to thank everyone here in Indianapolis. I'd really like to thank Danny Gavitt and Mr. Emmert and everyone that is responsible for putting on this great tournament. It's the best. Everyone we've come in contact with has been just a pleasure to deal with.

We came here Monday. The meals that we've had have been off the charts, fantastic. You're staying at the downtown Marriott. The NCAA does a whale of a job with this tournament, and we were thrilled to be a part of it, and I'm thankful.