Mike Young jokes about development of Tobi Lawal’s 3-point shot, praises growth

The Virginia Tech Hokies have struggled at times this season, particularly in ACC play. Amid those struggles, however, Tobi Lawal has stood out and now he’s earning more and more trust from head coach Mike Young.

One place Lawal has shown that improvement is in his three-point shooting. That’s something that the Hokies are even scheming for now, looking to give him opportunities to shoot from deep. After the recent loss to Clemson, Young even joked that he couldn’t have imagined that happening at the start of the year.

“He’ll be fine,” Mike Young said. “I’ve got great confidence in him. Fellas, if you had told me back in September when we kicked it off that I’d be running a play for him to shoot the ball from three, I’d give you an example that involves some ugly words. I never thought I’d do that.”

Tobi Lawal came to Virginia Tech as a transfer from VCU where he spent the first two seasons of his college career. While there, he shot .429 percent from three-point range. That came, primarily, in a sixth-man role. Now, at Virginia Tech, he’s started 20 games and is shooting .447 percent from three-point range. Along the way, he’s averaging 12.6 points per game.

“And while I put something in that we’ve run for a long time, I haven’t run it since Keve [Aluma] was here. God, Aluma was… and Tobi has shot the ball very well. I think he’s shooting 45 percent from three in league play. Run special plays for special players. He’s better with his feet in the ground. He’s coming out of an action to get to that. We ran it twice. He was — I may have run it three times. Two for him and he drove the second one and got all the way to the rim,” Young said.

“But that’s just the confidence I have in that kid. You’re not doing that if he’s a 16 percent three-point shooter, but you prove that you can step back there and make it, we’ll dial a couple of things up for you. He missed it today. We’re going to continue to go to it. He’s proven to us that he can make that shot.”

Despite the fact that Mike Young is having Tobi Lawal do things he hasn’t had a player do since Keve Aluma, he did resist comparing the two.

“No, none at all. Tobi is a heck of a player now. I take nothing away from Tobi. I just think they’re just different. Aluma was such a smooth operator in the post and he could step out. That happened over time too. He came with me. He sat out, which, will that ever happen again? His development through that sit-out year was just nothing short of remarkable. Now, Tobi came to us this year as a third-year guy, and he has worked every bit as hard as Keve and does some things better than Keve,” Young said.

“But I think if you asked me to compare the two, I don’t think there’s much of a comparison. Tobi does some things better than Keve. Keve does some things better than Tobi.”

Virginia Tech is looking to snap a three-game losing streak against Florida State on Wednesday night. It’s a game that Mike Young knows he’ll likely need Tobi Lawal to win after he’s scored in the double-digits for four straight games.