Virginia Tech men's basketball head coach Mike Young and guards Darius Maddox and Storm Murphy met with the media following the Hokies' 76-75 overtime win over No. 10 seed Clemson in the second round of the 2022 ACC Tournament. Read some of what they had to say:
MIKE YOUNG
(On Darius Maddox understanding his role) He's been awfully, awfully good for us. He continues to get better defensively. I've said it to you and to others, he scores the ball so easily and picks his spots. I couldn't tell you the last time he took a shot and I thought it was a bad shot. He's one of those that has an innate ability to make a play with the ball in his hands off the bounce, catch it and shoot. He's a good one. Glad he's a Hokie.
(On being hot offensively in the first half and what Clemson did to slow Tech down in the second half) I don't know anything they did better, and I don't take anything away from Clemson. We got a little goofy. We had a couple of quick shots. We had a couple of just really, really bad turnovers, just head scratchers. We got outside of ourselves a little bit. Continued to throw the ball into the post to Aluma. We continued to get shots. Didn't shoot as well in the second half, and then to Clemson's credit, they certainly stiffened up on us and took a couple of things away that were working in the first half.
DARIUS MADDOX
(On the final sequence that led to his game-winning shot and if he was supposed to be the guy to take the shot) I definitely wasn't. Coach subbed in all guards, all great shooters, and I think it might have been Hunter or Sean that got open to the left and they double teamed him, and it just left me open and I just took the ball, saw there was about five seconds on the clock and decided to make a move and make a shot.
(On the mentality of the bench and how they contributed tonight) We know we're in a game where being aggressive is the most effective, especially coming off the bench. Sitting down, obviously isn't the easiest thing to come in and make plays, but we just make as many aggressive plays as we can while we're in the game and try to affect the game in as many ways as possible.
STORM MURPHY
(On how good it felt to have a big game offensively) Yeah, I think my first two looks were pretty open, so once those went down, the rim just felt kind of big. And so the next two, I think were off the dribble in the first half, and then second half really didn't try to force it and shoot anything. I don't think I took another shot until maybe five minutes left or something. But that last one, Keve did a really good job twisting the ball screen, we've worked on that all week, and I came wide open. I think they were expecting the skinny on the side, and just rose up and thankfully it fell.
(On what was going through his head as Clemson stormed back) Yeah, I think that was kind of our problem early on in the season when teams would make runs back or we would lose a lead and wouldn't be able to close games. We really have grown there, and we were talking a lot in huddles trying to just stay together, stay connected, help each other be on the same page, know what defense we're in, know what offense you're running, and try to use the clock to our advantage, not panic, weather the storm, know we're still right there, and at the end of the day, we're going to win the game. And thanks to this kid, we did.
