Mike Young on his next steps at Virginia Tech: ‘We’ve got to get more talented’

Virginia Tech had 18 turnovers, gave up 18 Cal offensive rebounds, but, give ‘em credit, the Hokies battled, before losing in double overtime, 82-73, on Tuesday in the first round of the 2025 ACC Tournament.

The loss ends Tech’s season with a 13-19 record.

Which means, it’s now three years and counting since Mike Young has taken the Tech program to an NCAA Tournament.

The last two, at least, saw Virginia Tech flirt with getting back to the Big Dance.

The 2022-2023 team started 11-1 before a seven-game losing streak derailed things.

Last year, the Hokies hovered on the periphery of the bubble in the final weeks of the regular season before bowing out in the second round of the 2024 ACC Tournament in an upset loss to Florida State.

This year’s squad was never close, losing six straight after a modest 3-0 start, then losing five of its final seven to finish things out.

The turnover line on the stat sheet will bother Young as he heads back to Blacksburg and begins the process of putting a wrap on the season, and looks ahead to addressing roster needs when the transfer portal opens on March 24.

This year’s rotation was baby-faced – just two seniors, bigs Mylyjael Poteat and Ben Burnham, among the nine guys Young was using down the stretch this season.

The backcourt guys are all freshmen (Ben Hammond, Tyler Johnson) and sophomores (Brandon Rechsteiner, Jaydon Young, Jaden Schutt).

That quintet had a combined 11 TOs in the season-ending loss on Tuesday.

Young was, to say the least, not pleased – as has been the case for him all season long.

“I’ve had so many teams that have ranked nationally in assist-turnover. It kills me,” Young told reporters after the game.

To that point, this season, Tech ranked 332nd nationally in turnover percentage (20.0 percent).

“I’ve tossed and turned and gone back and forth and tried every, I mean, you can’t do it. I’ve told you, I’ve told anybody that will listen, I’ve told these guys, bases on balls in baseball, turnovers in football, turnovers in basketball, are going to kill you,” Young said.

“I don’t know, man, I don’t know. Address some things in the offseason, I can assure you of that,” Young said.

Woo, boy. Oughta be a fun bus trip back to Southwest Virginia for everybody involved there, huh?

Young is signaling here that, his team’s youth notwithstanding, he’s going to be cleaning house.

You can’t blame him.

His tenure at Tech got out to a good start, with the NCAA Tournament appearances in 2021 and 2022, the latter of which included an ACC Tournament title.

That one was followed up by back-to-back 19-15 finishes, and now the 13-19 finish this year.

Which adds up to: 51-49 over the past three seasons.

Young has two years left on his contract, at $3 million per – he’s paid more than UNC is paying Hubert Davis, who took his 2021-2022 team to the national-title game – and it’s not hard to imagine that another finish like this one, or the last two, would result in the school buying him out and moving on this time next year.

The hard part for Young is competing against other ACC and power conference schools that have significantly bigger NIL budgets.

That’s not going to change anytime soon, unfortunately.

You could see the guy feeling the heat of the moment after Tuesday’s double-OT loss.

One reporter asked Young a seemingly innocent question about “what was missing” that would have allowed his team to have more success this year.

“A lot was missing. A lot was missing,” Young said. “Just call it what it is. They’re great kids and a pleasure to work with. We’ve got to get more talented, and we’re going to, quick.”

A second Q-and-A summed it up.

The transcript had Young being asked if the issue with turnovers “is that something that can be fixed in the portal.”

“It better be. It better be. I’m not living through that again,” Young said.