The 2024-25 men's basketball season was a very rough one for Virginia Tech and veteran coach Mike Young. After a mass exodus in the transfer portal out of Blacksburg last spring, the Hokies went 13-19 and were bounced in the first round of the ACC Tournament by first-year member California.
Young vowed that Virginia Tech would be better next season as a bigger NIL package is going to help and he has added some key players from the transfer portal and some incoming freshmen. The problem for Young and the Hokies is that the conference is getting better, mainly the teams that were around them in the standings this past season.
The ACC has got a whole lot better since the end of the season
When it comes to the ACC, Duke is always going to be Duke, while North Carolina, Louisville, and Clemson were NCAA Tournament teams this year. Wake Forest has been knocking on the door, but three schools, Virginia, North Carolina State, and Miami were schools which the Hokies went a combined 4-1 against this past season, have got a whole lot better with new coaches.
Like every other school, all three of those programs lost key players to either graduation or the transfer portal, but the new coaches have done over the rosters and that is not good for Virginia Tech. Looking to take a ginat step next season and try and get back into the NCAA Tournament, the road in the ACC alone is getting a lot tougher.
Will Wade at NC State, Ryan Odom at Virginia, and Jai Lucas at Miami have quickly upgraded their rosters since being hired. Look, it's no secret that the ACC has been a punch line across the country when it comes to men's basketball and you could make the case that there's really nowhere to go but up, and now it appears that it is going up and that might not be good news for Young and Virginia Tech.