And that's on MY. Regardless of portal/NIL issues. Going in to this season, I wondered how Young would react to having a different kind of roster. One that was younger, more athletic, and filled with specialists, rather than generalists. One where the majority of the team would have little to no experience playing in his system. And the answer is... he is going to run his system, come hell or high water. Even though it may not fit the skill set of the players he has now. We have multiple players who would thrive in transition, but are instead being shoehorned into the same slow, halfcourt-oriented, perimeter-based 'actions' offense that Young has employed his entire career. When teams pressure that system, even with a roster that is more athletic and more capable of going over the top of a press, has Young changed his philosophy one iota? Nope. His strategy to 'break' a press is to break it only to cross halfcourt. He will then instruct his players to run the normal set offense, only with less time remaining on the shot clock. When teams extend their defense and take away the wide open 3's that Young's offense is designed to produce, does he respond by having guys emphasize dribble penetration and paint touches, to get that defense to back off? Nope. The answer is just 'we have to run our actions better'. On defense, Young's stubborn refusal to employ anything other than his basic man D is baffling. It was very instructive during last night's broadcast to hear Mack McCarthy detail all of the different defensive looks that J'Ville was throwing at VT, and there is no doubt that is what turned the game around at the beginning of the second half. Yet on VT's side, as Jacksonville was absolutely shredding our D, there were no adjustments. Just shuffling different players in and out, and asking them to play the existing D scheme better. We are constantly told, on this board, that it is pointless to spend practice time on different defenses, or to switch from the one you normally run. I think coach Mincy would disagree, as would last night's scoreboard. None of the problems we are seeing on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor are new. They are just being exposed more now, because Young has neither the typical roster he normally assembles, or the experience level he prefers. Yes, he was dealt a tough hand on both those fronts, due to VT's foolhardy decision to shower cash on an underperforming football program. But this year is not an outlier for Young, it's a somewhat predictable result after years of seeing these trends build. At this point, I see no indication that Young is willing to change his approach, even given the different type of talent he now has to work with, or the more transitory environment of college rosters that make it more difficult for 'system coaches' to succeed. He can't change the players he has. He can't change the portal or NIL. And he won't change his tactics. I'm not sure how all of those added together mean anything other than a cratering of the VT mens hoops program back to early 1990's levels.