Virginia Tech men's basketball head coach Mike Young, forwards Keve Aluma and Justyn Mutts and guards Hunter Cattoor and Storm Murphy met with the media on Thursday leading up to their first-round game against No. 6 Texas in the NCAA Tournament in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Read some of what they had to say:
MIKE YOUNG
(On the uptick in rebounding better) Our guards are rebounding, there were 27 rebounds for us against Duke, right? 27 rebounds against Duke, and 20 of them came from our guards. There was something else in the last two games. There were 40-something, and a number of those were from our guards. Now, that will be tested tomorrow. All right? The Longhorns will wear us out if we are sharp with our cutouts and pursuing the ball better, rebounding from our guards. I know that Mutts and Aluma will rebound. They've got a full plate tomorrow with No. 32. I'm sorry. Names escape me. But Timmy Allen is a terrific rebounder, as is No. 30. Jones, No. 1, will stick his nose in there. So it will be a huge part of the game tomorrow afternoon.
(On the approach being more business-like this year compared to last year's NCAA Tournament trip) That experience was so different because of COVID and having to be up there in quarantine. This is the experience that we all came to expect for our players. This is an older group. That was Mutts' first opportunity. There were a number of people on last year's team. Bede had done it. A couple others had done it. But for a couple of those guys, the first time -- this is a different game. You know, for the NCAA Tournament and all the exposure and the number of eyes that are on each of these games that are played, the magnitude of it. But I'll start -- as you know, I've done it for 35 games. I don't think I'm going to alter tomorrow. I'll start three five-year seniors and two juniors that have played a great deal of basketball. I think last week's experience in Brooklyn and what we did there, you know, further excites them to come here and play well against a really good Texas team.
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KEVE ALUMA
(On being a part of 2019's NCAA Tournament and last year's NCAA Tournament and the contrast) Definitely. This is a cool experience. Obviously, at Wofford, I wasn't the one coming to the podium and being asked questions, but it's a cool experience. Glad that we'll be able to have fans in there and just see what happens.
HUNTER CATTOOR
(On the mindset heading into the NCAA Tournament) I would just say it's kind of like a new season for us. We went to the ACC tournament, won that, cleaned the slate, and now we get ready for this tournament, take it one game at a time.
STORM MURPHY
(On how much fun they're having, especially coming off the 2-7 ACC start) Honestly, I would say being here means more than I can really even describe. Pretty emotional, to be honest. I read a couple articles, saw some tweets and stuff about people apologizing for the hate and the disrespect and everything they gave us throughout the season, losing hope and doubting us, talking about how this went from one of the most expected, greatest, you know, exciting teams to the biggest disappointment when we lost some games. To see what this team did to just block out that noise, let that fuel us and believe even more how good we were and what we could do to then go win an ACC championship and earn every single right and reason to be here makes me just, like, incredibly proud of these guys, of this team.
JUSTYN MUTTS
(On what has stood out on the strong second half of the season for the change) I wouldn't say we were selfish at the beginning of the year, but I think, as we got into that hole, it became even less about me and more about doing whatever it took to help my teammates, help my brothers. You know, once everybody just gave of themselves and we really became one group, one unified group, I feel we really started making steps in the right direction.