Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – With the basketball season set to tip off in exactly 13 days, Mike Young sounds like a business owner, as he and his staff prepare the Virginia Tech men's basketball team for its opener against Radford.
His company slogan – undersell and overserve.
"I do," Young said Thursday when asked by media members if he thought his team could improve on last year's seven conference. "But you've heard me say it – you'll hear me say it again – every year the same goal: to take this team as far as I can take them and see them grow and develop and come together as a unit in a bizarre time for all of us. But I do. We are better. How much better, I'm not sure yet. I think appreciably simply because we're bigger and stronger and can beat you in more ways.
"But undersell and overserve. That will be my way of looking at things throughout my career professionally and personally. I'm looking forward to getting into it, I can tell you that. Excited about where we are today and thankful we have another 10 practices or so before we kick it off on Nov. 25."
Young has many reasons for optimism in looking ahead to this season, his second as the Hokies' coach. A year ago, he guided an inexperienced and undersized team to a 16-16 overall record, beat then-No. 3 Michigan State in Maui, and won seven ACC games when many expected the Hokies to win several fewer than that.
He and his staff spent the offseason retooling the roster to be even more competitive this season. Only six players who played for Tech last season return for the 2020-21 campaign, and this year's roster includes three graduate transfers, along with four freshmen. The offseason haul included size, experience, and talent.
Of course, that only means that this team will be older, taller and more talented. Whether that equates to more wins remains to be seen, particularly as the team works to build chemistry after missing several months earlier this summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's good," point guard Wabissa Bede said of the chemistry. "But, of course, all good chemistry doesn't happen in one day. So we are all improving day by day, and that's what I like about this team. We are going to get there and we are going to push each other every single day. We have to translate that to the court and good things will happen. So I'm very excited about this team."
The Hokies figure to play much differently than last season when they led the ACC with 315 3-pointers and yet finished 14th in the ACC in free throws made (305) and attempted (429). They also lost leading scorer Landers Nolley II, who elected to transfer after the season, so Young needs to find a player or multiple players to make for those minutes and production.
Fortunately, he'll have more options. Bede, Tyrece Radford, Hunter Cattoor, Nahiem Alleyne, and Jalen Cone all return on the perimeter, with Radford leading the way after a breakout 2019-20 season in which he averaged 10.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game and shot 60% from the floor.
Plus, Tech's staff added Cartier Diarra, a graduate transfer from Kansas State who averaged 13.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game last season. He led Kansas State to the Elite Eight in 2018 and gives the Hokies an all-conference presence on the perimeter.
"All I can say is he is an outstanding player," Radford said. "He does all the extra work and gets the job done. He is a crazy athlete."
"Cartier is a seasoned vet and has been to the Elite Eight, so he knows what the battle is about," Bede said. "I think the transition from the Big 12 to the ACC will be smooth. I'm not worried about him – his confidence is through the roof, so that's what I love about Cartier."
Inside, John Ojiako returns after seeing limited time as a freshman last season. The staff, though, gets the services of Keve Aluma, who transferred from Wofford and sat out last season. In addition, the coaches added graduate transfers Cordell Pemsl and Justyn Mutts. Pemsl scored 550 points during his career at Iowa, while Mutts averaged 12.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game for Delaware last season.
"Both are skilled players" Aluma said. "Guarding them every day has helped me get better. One of them is athletic, and the other is savvy. They are both great players."
"We are deeper," Young said. "In Year 2, I feel good about the balance of our roster. I talked about it in the office yesterday where are distribution will be in terms of minutes in the early season and how that will compare to the end of the season. That will be interesting, as guys come into their own more. We can plug different people into some different spots that we didn't have last year."
Most of the questions that Young received Thursday centered on COVID-19. The Hokies haven't run into any issues so far, but with a small roster size, the team needs to be careful. Just one positive could sideline multiple players or even the team for 14 days.
Young often talks with the football coaching staff on how they deal with absences – specifically offensive line coach Vance Vice. He has spent the first month of practices working multiple players at different spots to build depth. Tech's players need to be versatile and smart, knowing multiple roles on offense and being able to guard different positions on defense.
Young hopes for the best, as it relates to COVID. But he also isn't naïve.
"You know, I think we're kidding ourselves if we think that we're not going to have an issue throughout the course of the season," he said. "Let's hope not. We may get to the end of it and we have it and that would be awesome. But the realist in me thinks that we're all going to be affected at some point during the season. Again, let's handle it the right way and get him healthy and get him back when we can."
The Hokies play four nonconference games before opening the ACC slate against Clemson on Dec. 15. They play ACC heavyweights Florida State, Virginia and Louisville twice, but see Duke and North Carolina just once each, with the Duke game being in Blacksburg.
So the possibility exists for an even better season in Young's second year. But Young isn't promising anything, even with a deeper, more experienced, and talented roster.
Remember, undersell – and then overserve.