Mike Young stresses need for Virginia Tech to find road success

The Virginia Tech Hokies dropped a frustrating game against rival Virginia on Wednesday. After the game, head coach Mike Young stressed how important it is for Virginia Tech to find success on the road moving forward.

Young explained that even though it can be difficult to win on the road, especially at Virginia, it’s still something that the Hokies need to do to find success moving forward this season.

“It’s not easy to win out here, but you’ve got to do it,” Mike Young said. “And to do it, there’s got to be a connection throughout the group. You’ve got to get contributions throughout the unit. You cannot turn the ball over on the road or at home.”

The Cavaliers held the Hokies to just 57 points in the game. Over the course of the game, Virginia Tech shot just 38.9% from the field and 36.7% three-point range. Virginia Tech also only shot four free throws with 15 turnovers on the game.

Part of the credit for those numbers should go to Virginia for playing excellent defense, but part of it also came down to Virginia Tech not taking advantage of opportunities.

“And you’ve got to step to the plate and make a shot when that thing swings around and you’ve got a good crack at it, and we didn’t do that at times tonight. We’ll need to on Saturday against the Wolfpack who is obviously playing pretty good basketball.”

On Saturday, Virginia Tech will travel to NC State to take on the Wolfpack. NC State is 5-1 in ACC play to this point in the season. They’ve also won six of their last seven games, making for a challenging opponent to bounce back against.

The Hokies, meanwhile, have lost four of their last five games. On the season, Virginia Tech is now 0-4 in road games.

Hunter Cattoor returner for the Virginia game

After suffering a concussion against Clemson, Virginia Tech was without one of their best shooters, Hunter Cattoor. Luckily, he was able to return to the lineup against Virginia.

He was able to practice and was cleared to play shortly before the game, where he saw pretty significant action, scoring 12 points. He was one of three Hokies to score double digits in the game and had the second most points of anyone on the team, behind Sean Pedulla.

As time goes on, he should be able to get better acclimated to the lineup again and help Virginia Tech throughout ACC play.