Mike Young praises winning plays made by Rodney Rice

Rodney Rice has not be able to contribute much during his freshman season due to injuries that have forced him to miss most of the year. But the rookie came up clutch for Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young and the rest of Rice’s Hokies teammates.

While he only played 17 minutes, Rice was the key player of the bench for Virginia Tech in its victory Tuesday over Notre Dame in the first round of the ACC Tournament.

When Grant Basile picked up his fourth foul, Young elected to ride with Rice. The Hokies had two freshman on the floor in the postseason game for a good portion of the game down the stretch with Rice and MJ Collins.

But the move worked out as Rice hit a clutch 3-pointer and also had an important block.

“That gave me great pause having two rookies on the floor, and that was Rodney’s sixth game,” Young said after the game. That was a defensive switch as much as anything, and Coach Brey had gone smaller. He was Laszewski at the 5 and Goodwin at the, so we’re trying to counter that,” Young said. “It’s a quicker…lineup for us, so we can switch ball screens, switch some of that stuff.”

Rodney Rice helped Virginia Tech’s defense down the stretch

Rodney Rice finished with just three points on 1-for-3 shooting plus five rebounds. But it was his impact and energy on the defensive end that help the Hokies close out the victory.

“If you don’t switch things with Notre Dame, they will light you up, as they did up there when they made 13 threes,” Young said. “So we’re trying to keep a body on a body. They made eight today. Trying to keep a body on a body, and we put Basile in a tough spot. He’s got to guard Hammond, who played very, very well, obviously.

“That touched us up through the early portions — late first half, second half, but when it mattered most, I thought our guys stiffened up and really played really well on that end. We’re down four, there’s a media time-out with 3:30 to play, and we’re down four. Proud of our team.”