Mike Young has achieved a lot during his time as a coach, yet he reached another achievement Wednesday night as Virginia Tech went on the road to Tallahassee and played arguably their best game of the season.
Virginia Tech beat Florida State 76-66 to improve to 9-12 on the season with the Seminoles dropping to 13-7 overall. In the process, Mike Young earned his 400th career win, an impressive achievement for a coach who has done more with less at many times in his career including this season, with the Hokies now having four ACC wins.
Tech started by playing 20 of their best minutes of basketball of the season, jumping out to a 12-2 lead out the gates and then taking a 35-15 lead into halftime. Tech’s defense was a big part of it as they held the Seminoles to 6-28 from the field including 0-8 from three-point range. They also were able to get enough going offensively including from three-point range with Jaydon Young having 3 threes in the opening 20 minutes.
Things did tighten in the second half with FSU cutting the Hokie lead down to as little as 6. However, similar to the Cal game, Tech responded to FSU’s surge with a counter punch of their own, going on a 12-2 run after that moment to push the lead to 16 and never look back after that.
Creating opportunities is part of the story as the Hokies only had 10 turnovers compared to 11 for FSU while also having a 14-10 edge in offensive rebounding. While FSU did have four more shot attempts, the reality is that VT had way more scoring opportunities in this game with 30 free-throw attempts as well compared to only 12 for FSU.
Tobi Lawal once again delivered for the Hokies down the stretch on his way to having a team-high 17 points and career-high 13 rebounds. Lawal’s development this season has been quite impressive, with his tremendous athleticism and size combing with a more well-rounded offensive game to pair with effective rebounding and defense.
Jaden Schutt was important in closing this one out with 16 points including an important 7-8 from the free-throw line on a night where VT as a team shot 18-30 from the charity stripe.
Schutt wasn’t the only effective wing as Jaydon Young added nine first half points while Tyler Johnson had six points plus six rebounds as he continues to be a well above-average rebounder for a guard. Meanwhile, Mylyjael Poteat had nine points and two steals on a night where the Hokies had nine steals as a team. Brandon Rechsteiner added eight off the bench as he continues to be a shooting spark plug at times for this team in ACC play.
Taylor Bol Bowen led FSU with 14 points while Jerry Deng was great off the bench with 13 points as the only other Seminole in double figures.
This was the best team that Virginia Tech has beaten all season, with a performance that is a testament to how much this VT team has grown. Remember, this is a Hokie team that has gone from losing to Jacksonville at home to sweeping their first two games against the ACC’s Sunshine State teams.
And to get their best win of the season for Mike Young’s 400th career win feels like a fitting salute to Young, who has turned an underfunded, struggling, inexperienced team into a problem in the ACC. For a team that seemed destined to miss the ACC Tournament and now is on track to comfortably make it, that’s an impressive turnaround.
