Virginia Tech Basketball: Mike Young explains Sean Pedulla's absence against American

In the closing seconds of a 75-68 victory over Louisville at Cassell Coliseum on Dec. 3 to open ACC play, Virginia Tech starting point guard Sean Pedulla was injured on the last play of the game. Six days later when the Hokies hosted Valparaiso, Pedulla missed the game with his ankle in a boot. He returned last Saturday in a dominating win over Vermont and looked like he was feeling better.

Thursday night, the Hokies hosted American University in their final non-conference game of the season and before the game started, Pedulla was ruled out and it was ''simply precautionary.'' Ankle injuries can be funny and sometimes are not the easiest things to recover from and each injury can have a different time frame to recovery.

Of course, after coming back into the lineup against Vermont and then being ruled out before tip-off against the Eagles, it was raising some flags. Following Virginia Tech's 77-55 win over American, head coach Mike Young explained the reason for his junior's absence in the final tune-up before ACC play begins next week in full.

Mike Young explains Sean Pedulla's absence vs. American

After playing Vermont Saturday, the Hokies were off Sunday and everything was good when he was examined by the trainers Monday, but Pedulla did something on Tuesday in practice that made everyone think about his health than a game 48 hours later.

"He did something on Tuesday that scared him a little bit,'' Young said. "He's fine, he's a-ok, but Hisham (Ziyout, Senior Director of Medicine) thought if we could do it (sit out the American game), I wasn't sure we could, but that's what was best for him. We decided to sit him. Let's be honest, Wake Forest, Florida State, Clemson, Miami, it all runs together and that's a lot more important to me than today. Thankful we played well enough to win today.

"He cut and it bothered him. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not worse, it's getting better. Vermont was Saturday and Wake Forest is 10 days, abut that, so you got a chance to get it well now instead of managing that thing throughout the course of the year. Let's hope he's 100% as we head down to Winston-Salem and we think he will be.''

This without a doubt was the right move by Young and the medical staff. It's best to get this thing healed with another nine days before Wake Forest and the ACC schedule that awaits Virginia Tech as they look to to get to the NCAA Tournament in March.