Monday morning in the Cassell, AD Whit Babcock officially announced Mike Young as the new coach of the Hokies’ men’s basketball team. Young led his former team, the Wofford Terriers, into the NCAA tournament this season and were six points away from knocking off Kentucky in the second. Here’s what to know about the hire and what to look for in the coming days...

Background:

To start, he’s a New River Valley native. Young is from just up the road in Radford and mentioned growing up going to games and campus as a kid in the Cassell. The transition for him and his family will be easier than most job changes as he’s familiar with the area which allows them to hit the ground running.

Being from the NRV, he made it clear he wants a long tenure at Virginia Tech and is around for the long haul. As he reminisced about past memories growing up a Tech fan, you could tell he was overjoyed to have this position offered to him and wants to continue to build a winning tradition at Virginia Tech and sustain it.

Coaching History:

Mike has been at Wofford for the past thirty years as an assistant and then as a head coach for the past seventeen seasons. As you’d expect, the first several years at the helm were a struggle and turned in a less than impressive record. However, after adjusting to the job and getting a full roster of his recruits, he turned Wofford into an annual contender for the conference title in the Southern Conference. Once winning his first conference title in the ‘09-’10 season, he didn’t look back and has one four more including this season (five conference titles in the past ten years).

On the schematic side of coaching, his teams look similar to the recent Hokies team. He likes to run an offense that focuses around stretching the floor with shooters and relies on a big man to create looks for others. Having a similar motion offense will make the transition for returning players a lot easier than in they scrapped everything. On defense, he uses minimal zone and likes to have physical and energetic man to man defense.

By the Numbers:

Offensively, Wofford ranked 13th in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency, 16th in points per game, and 2nd in 3 point field goal percentage. He runs a no nonsense, no turnover offense and makes sure his guys can shoot the ball. One more key to his offense is building around the talent. Young had senior guard Fletcher Magee who was a marksman from deep; and Mike Young knew how to use him. When he’s had talent over the years, he gets the most out of it which will be huge going forward for the Hokies.

Defensively, Young’s team ranked in the top sixty in efficiency but left it all out on the court. What his team lacked in athleticism, they made up for in effort. As mentioned before, he gets the best out of everyone and makes sure you can and will play both sides of the ball every possession.

One Question Mark:

The one question I have for Mike Young is his recruiting. AD Whit Babcock said Young had a very good recruiting plan and looked forward to seeing what he could do. With that being said, Young has never had the resources to go after or land big recruits. Jumping into the ACC recruiting fields will be a big and important test for him. On that note, he mentioned the importance of hiring a superb staff to help in development (an area Young is exceptional), recruiting, and game management. If Mike Young hires a staff that compliments him well and includes proven recruiters, I think this is an excellent hire. Now, we’ve just got wait and...

GO HOKIES!!!!