Mike Young reveals how Duke's defense shut down Virginia Tech's offense

On Saturday, the Duke Blue Devils shut down the Virginia Tech Hokies‘ offense. This was another blow for head coach Mike Young and Virginia Tech who have had an up-and-down season.

After the game, Young explained what Duke did that shut his team down, starting with using their athletic ability to put pressure on the ball.

“Such pressure, Mark, and really took,” Mike Young paused before continuing.

“Defensively, you want to disrupt other people’s route and timing, and you do that with pressure, you do that with ball pressure, you do that with topping actions where you’re on top of it not gonna let the cutter get to the action, and some of our stuff requires that. Just their speed. We couldn’t get anything in transition. Again, they were really, really sharp. They were good.”

Mike Young also felt that Duke emphasized shutting down Hunter Cattoor, who only scored six points.

“I think John [Scheyer] said somebody else is gonna beat the Blue Devils tonight, and we didn’t have that person and he’s awesome,” Young said. “But, they did a good job with him. [Tyrese] Proctor and I think [Jeremy] Roach matched with him some. They did a really good job with him.”

Virginia Tech did manage to bounce back, beating Louisville 71-54. The Hokies only have one regular season game left, against Florida State on Saturday, March 4th.

Mike Young on Rodney Rice’s play

Rodney Rice has only played in a few games this season because of injuries. He was able to play against Duke, though, leading to praise from Mike Young.

“He’s really good,” Young said.

“He’s a very good basketball player. That was his third game as a college player and trying to bring him into the fold, I thought he had a nice outing. I thought he had a couple of quick shots. I thought he got dotted up a couple of times defensively, but it’s great to have him on the floor. Every rep he gets is going to be beneficial for us as we move along.”