Virginia Tech: Coach brings an engaging style he honed at Wofford
BLACKSBURG — Just before the start of another season in the late 1990s, Richard Johnson left his Wofford men’s basketball program in the hands of assistant coaches while he traveled to a preseason Southern Conference media event.
It was just for a weekend, but Mike Young teamed with fellow Wofford assistant John Shulman to give players a taste of how they ran practice when the boss wasn’t watching. By Sunday evening, players were begging for Johnson to return to campus.
“When I came back at the end of the weekend, one of the captains came up to me and said, ‘Coach, don’t ever leave us with those two … alone again,’” Johnson said recently. “They didn’t know anything other than one speed. I know Mike had a lot to do with making that happen … You watch (Young) now, and you watch how he coaches, he’s so passionate. You could see it back in those early days, too.”
“Passion for the game”
From an energy standpoint, Young in his 20s and 30s apparently wasn’t much
different from the 56-year-old Young who will begin his first season as Virginia Tech’s coach tonight at Clemson after spending the last 30 seasons, including 17 as a head coach, at Wofford. “Passion” is indeed a repeating theme. “Coach really has a passion for the game,” freshman guard Jalen Cone said. “It’s a passion I’ve seen that many coaches just don’t have. He loves the game like he’s the one out there playing.”
It didn’t take long for his high-volume perimeter shooting philosophy to catch on with Virginia Tech’s players. Last season, Wofford went 30-5 — establishing a school single-season record for wins — and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament on the strength of the nation’s second-best 3-point field-goal shooting percentage (41.4).
A quick study of statistician Ken Pomeroy’s analytics revealed to Hokies guard Wabissa Bede that Wofford was 10th in the nation last season in offensive efficiency – one spot above Tech.
“I just knew his offense was really talented,” Bede said. “It was great seeing those numbers. It opened up my eyes like, ‘All right, he knows what he’s talking about.’”
Deflecting attention, Young is quick to credit a good portion of his coaching acumen to Johnson, who took over as Wofford’s athletic director in 2001, and promoted Young to the Terriers’ men’s basketball head coaching position in the process.
“He gave me a chance as a kid who didn’t know anything,” said Young, a Radford native who graduated in 1986 from Emory & Henry College. “I thought I did, but I didn’t. He gave me a chance to find my voice. He gave me a chance to grow as a basketball coach, and I will be forever indebted to him.”
The relationship guy
Johnson’s guidance was essential in the development of Young’s early recruiting style. Hired by Johnson in 1989 after he’d spent one season at Radford as an assistant under then-Highlanders coach Oliver Purnell, Young learned the fine art of schmoozing from Johnson.
Spending his college years in the early-to-mid 1970s playing for coach Les Robinson at The Citadel, Johnson remained close with Robinson when he went on to coach at East Tennessee State. Butch Estes, who was an assistant coach at The Citadel when Johnson played there, was also tight with Johnson when Estes went on to become Furman’s head coach.
Young took the reins from Johnson in recruiting efforts and buddied up with Robinson, Estes and their staffs. A Division II program that had just transitioned from NAIA in ’88, Wofford was willing to get recruiting help from anywhere possible.
Probing opposing coaching staffs for talent evaluations became a way of life for Young, who also built bridges between Wofford’s staff and the staffs of former Clemson coaches Larry Shyatt and Rick Barnes.
“We spent Davidson, Furman and East Tennessee’s money, and they would give us names of kids,” said Johnson, who led Wofford to Division I in 1995 and Southern Conference membership in ’97. “They’d say, ‘Hey, this kid isn’t quite big enough for us,’ or ‘We’re not sure we’re going to take this kid.’ Mike did a lot of that, and continued to do a lot of that for years.
“Basketball isn’t just his job, it’s also his hobby. When you do that, you’re always coming up with new ideas and better ways to do things and incorporating things from different coaches and assistants at different programs. You kind of build your own database, and that’s what he’s done.”
Program builder
A glance at Young’s resume may endear him to Tech fans who appreciate the coach who’s had to grind to get to his place – similar to former Hokies football Frank Beamer.
Like Beamer, who went 24-40-2 in his first six seasons at Tech before finally breaking through and developing a perennial winner, Young struggled mightily in his early years at Wofford. He was 58-87 in his first five seasons, but finished his tenure at Wofford with five Southern Conference championships and NCAA tournament berths.
Young is content with the notion that expectations are lowered at Tech, which is predicted by media to finish 14th in the ACC. Though he acknowledges Tech’s inexperience and youth “worries the heck out of” him, he won’t be satisfied with anything less than steady improvement.
“I’ve told others before, the only thing that matters to me – if I can look back in late March, and this team has progressed as far as we can progress, I’ll take it,” Young said. “Sign me up. …(I’m) very pleased in some areas, and some areas we’ve got to (improve). I think if you ask any coach in the country right now, they’d say the exact same thing.”