Mike Young unsure why Virginia Tech rollercoaster season continues with defensive, rebounding struggles

Virginia Tech‘s rollercoaster season continued over the weekend when the Hokies upset the Pittsburgh Panthers 79-72 in one of the team’s best efforts of the season.

But the showing left coach Mike Young as confused as ever, because the defensive attention to detail he’d been craving all year finally showed up.

He doesn’t know what buttons to push to get that kind of effort all the time.

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Young said. “I just got to do a better job with them. We were awesome. There’s a correlation between playing great defense and rebounding and winning. And the same thing: You don’t guard, you don’t rebound you make it awfully hard on yourself.”

Virginia Tech has been remarkably inconsistent of late, even in a rollercoaster season.

It’s been a month since the team last won or lost back-to-back games, going back and forth between win and loss routinely the last few weeks.

“We were outstanding in here against Virginia,” Young said. “Pittsburgh, they are fierce offensively. They’re fierce on both ends, but for the reasons I’ve already covered with you we were just so dynamic today and so connected and our transition defense was on point. Just a pleasure to watch. And that’s it. That’s it.”

Still, no answers as to why during this rollercoaster season.

“I can’t pinpoint it,” Young said. “I need to do a better job with them. … It’s been an interesting year. But I think we’ve got a lot more to look forward to, I really do.”

Now the key is Virginia Tech showing up with the same kind of defensive intensity and chemistry the team had against Pittsburgh in the next one, against the Miami Hurricanes.

“Now let’s come back after two days of practice and do it against Miami who’s got a bunch of really good players too,” Young said.