Virginia Tech men's basketball head coach Mike Young, guards Hunter Cattoor and Storm Murphy and forward Keve Aluma met with the media following the Hokies' 82-67 win over top-seeded Clemson in the championship game of the 2022 ACC Tournament. Read some of what they had to say:
MIKE YOUNG
(On what was working for the Hokies against Duke) We played good basketball. We were not clicking defensively. My point at the half was if you think we can outscore them, you're sadly mistaken. We were much better. I don't think they're shooting the ball great right now. They're averaging 5, 5 1/2 made threes a game, so we really wanted to shrink it in the second half. I couldn't convince them of that during the media time-outs in the first half where they only made two, but we had a couple of poor close-outs to guys that we didn't think were going to make that particular shot this night. Now, it looked like a video game through the first media. I think it was 15-14. We couldn't stop them, they couldn't stop us. But a much better second half. Got our feet on the ground defensively but continued to play good basketball on the offensive end of the floor.
(On what it means to win an ACC title at Virginia Tech) I mean, it's really a special thing for our basketball team. This is a special thing for Blacksburg; for southwest Virginia where I'm from, where I grew up; for the state of Virginia; for our unbelievable Hokie fan base. They'll always remember this, this team, and what they've accomplished. I'll tell you something else: Holy cow, I don't watch the prognosticators, bracketologists. I'm thinking we get to the ACC final, maybe we lose this game. Holy cow, we've got to be in the tournament, aren't we? We are now, so to heck with that stuff. Our name will be called tomorrow and we'll be excited wherever we may go.
HUNTER CATTOOR
(On what allowed him to be successful tonight) I think just the rhythm of the game, my teammates and Coach Young trusting in me, just the system that we play in. I was going through a rough shooting slump and every time in practice, every time in the games, my teammates would tell me I'm the best shooter in the gym. So just having that mindset and that trust from my players, it's welcoming to hear that.
(On what it means to win an ACC title) It means a lot just for the history of Virginia Tech. Coach Young mentioned before we're not doing it just for our team here in that locker room. We were doing it for all the players before and everyone that came through Virginia Tech before. So it's a history thing for the Virginia Tech school and the program, and it means a lot to be the first ones.
STORM MURPHY
(On what it was like to play alongside Hunter Cattoor tonight) Yeah, my goodness, it's just like sitting on the couch watching TV. He's just not missing a thing. We want him to just get every shot up when he's hot like that. We saw that at Florida State, and yeah, we're talking to him about continuing to just shoot it. I think the really cool thing about Hunt is over the last month or whatnot he hasn't shot it so great, and he's owned that struggle. He's talked about that. He's embraced that. He hasn't hid from it. So we've all come around to him and continued to just tell him, my goodness, you're the best shooter in the gym anywhere we go. He's believed that and then popped off today like that.
(On how the team stayed motivated playing four games in four days) Maybe the nightmares and flashbacks of 5:00 a.m. conditioning with these guys and Coach Jackson maybe. But I think like honestly, those mornings, pushing through with that mindset and that mentality kind of helped us. Whenever we felt some fatigue or whatnot, had to tell ourselves we don't feel it, we have to push through. Maybe that was a little bit of the defensive sluggish start, but I think we turned it up a notch, finally woke up, and ended out right.
KEVE ALUMA
(On what it means to be ACC Tournament champions) It means everything. I don't think a lot of people thought we would do this or even end up with a positive record. I mean, it means everything. I think it just shows that this team was resilient and that we fight.
