Mike Young fires shot at Miami while explaining turnover issues vs. Louisville

Virginia Tech coach Mike Young was fuming over his team’s lack of ball handling in a 71-66 loss against Louisville on Tuesday evening. The Hokies committed 22 tunovers, a fact that Young called “miserable” in the opening comments on his press conference.

When a reporter followed up on the coach’s comments with a question about what was different between this game and the one before against Miami, where Virginia Tech committed just five turnovers, Young didn’t hold back.

“Miami doesn’t guard anything,” he quipped. “Louisville guards.”

It seemed like an unneccessary shot at the Hurricanes, whom the Hokies defeated 81-68 over the weekend. However, it is backed up by the stats as Miami has the worst defensive rating in the ACC while Louisville comes in third.

Virginia Tech clearly struggled against a much stronger defensive opponent as it allowed the Cardinals to begin the game on an 11-0 run. Young pointed to an off game from Tobi Lawal, who finished with just two points and four turnovers, as contributing to the offensive issues for his team.

“His ball skills were so pitiful to start the game,” Young said. “I think he had three of our 12 turnovers to start the first half. He’s come so far. Just didn’t have his best night.”

Desppite the slow start, the Hokies managed to claw their way back into the contest and trailed by only eight points at halftime. They fought back to tie the game at the 10:32 mark of the second half, but then both teams went scoreless for three minutes straight.

Ultimately, Louisville pulled away for the lead and would never relinquish it as the turnovers wold come back to haunt Mike Young and Virginia Tech. It had to sting even more that Louisville had only nine steals, so many of the turnovers seemed to be caused more so by mistakes on the Hokies’ part.

The loss dropped Virginia Tech to 12-16 (7-10 ACC) in the sixth season for Young. It has not made the NCAA Tournament since 2022 and is looking at once again missing out on March Madness for the third straight season.

That will give the Hokies plenty of questions to answer once the season wraps up. But for now, their attention will be on their next matchup against Syracuse on Saturday.