After Virginia Tech’s gritty win over Syracuse on Wednesday, Hokies head coach Mike Young didn’t hold back in his postgame breakdown of the Orange - and his comments offered some revealing insights into how his team approached the matchup. While most coaches tend to speak in generalities, Young got specific, and in doing so, he gave us a rare peek behind the curtain of a game plan that clearly worked.
Let’s start with how Virginia Tech defended Donnie Freeman. Young’s directive to his players was simple but telling: force Freeman left.
“Donnie is a dominant right-hand driver,” Young said. “He’s gotta go right. Be on his shoe-tops on the perimeter and just sit on his right hand.”
That’s not just a scouting note - it’s a full-on blueprint. Young essentially labeled Freeman a one-way player, and the Hokies leaned into that, taking away his strength and daring him to beat them going the other way.
The result? Freeman turned in his worst performance of the season.
Whether that was a one-off or a sign of something more, the numbers back up Virginia Tech’s approach. Take away his right hand, and you take away a major piece of Syracuse’s offensive puzzle.
Then there was the physicality of the game itself, which Young described in colorful fashion.
“It felt like a tractor pull,” he said - and if you watched the game, you know exactly what he meant.
It was a grind, and one of the more surprising wrinkles was how Virginia Tech attacked Kyle, a player many Syracuse fans consider the team’s best defender. Young pointed out that Amani Hansberry gave Kyle trouble, saying:
“I thought Kyle had some problems with (Hansberry) because we got him behind some things.”
That’s a notable admission. Kyle’s athleticism is undeniable - he’s the kind of player who can erase mistakes with a single leap - but Virginia Tech clearly didn’t shy away from going at him.
In fact, they seemed to target him. And the numbers once again tell the story: Kyle finished with a team-worst -9 in the plus-minus column.
That’s not the kind of stat you expect from your defensive anchor.
There’s also the question of Kyle’s absence during a critical late-game sequence. With Syracuse trailing and needing a rebound to have a shot at tying it, Kyle was on the bench.
Fans were quick to question the move, but there was a layer of strategy behind it. With no timeouts left, any rebound would’ve likely led to an immediate foul.
And if Kyle had been the one at the line? That’s a scenario Syracuse may not have wanted to test.
Interestingly, Virginia Tech’s offensive approach seemed to shift once Kyle was off the floor. That suggests his presence - even if not perfect - still altered what the Hokies were willing to do. Sometimes, just being on the court changes the calculus.
And then there’s JJ Starling. When asked about Syracuse’s guard, Young didn’t mince words:
“JJ scares us to death. He has scared me for three years now.”
That’s high praise from an opposing coach, and it’s not hard to see why. The puzzling part?
Starling only played six minutes in the first half due to foul trouble. Whether that was a coaching decision or just bad luck, it was a break Virginia Tech was more than happy to take.
Because once Starling got going in the second half, he reminded everyone why he’s such a problem. He poured in 12 points after the break, including multiple coast-to-coast finishes that kept Syracuse in striking distance.
It’s not often you get this level of candor from a coach after a game, but Mike Young laid it all out - from defensive matchups to in-game adjustments. And in doing so, he gave us a clearer picture of where Syracuse stands right now: a team with talent, but also with some exploitable tendencies.