High-scoring Ball State transfer gaining interest from Virginia Tech

If there is one person who has been working overtime the last couple of weeks, it's Virginia Tech men's basketball coach Mike Young. Add his assistant coaches to the overtime as well as they have a big project in front of them in terms of building a roster for the 2024-25 season.

Since the Hokies season ended on March 23 at Ohio State in the second round of the NIT, Virginia Tech has had a mass exodus of players to the transfer portal. Gone are Sean Pedulla, Lynn Kidd, Tyler Nickel, and MJ Collins from this past season's roster and that's a lot of talent and scoring that is leaving Blacksburg. Mylyjael Poteat also entered the transfer portal, but he withdrew three days later and announced he's returning to Virginia Tech next season. Young added two players from the portal last week and they appear to be in on a high-scoring forward from Ball State.

Virginia Tech recruiting Basheer Jihad from Ball State in the transfer portal

High-scoring forward Basheer Jihad has received a lot of interest in the transfer portal from several schools including Virginia Tech. Last season for the Cardinals, he averaged 18.6 points a game and eight rebounds. He recorded double figures in all but one of the games he played in for Ball State and in that game, he finished with nine.

He saw a large increase this past season as a junior after averaging just 7.1 points and 3.6 rebounds a game in 2023-24. This past season, he shot 35% from behind the arc and that would fit right into what Virginia Tech likes to do. Last week, Ben Burnham committed to the Hokies as a forward who can stretch the floor and shoot it, and guard Jordan Ivy-Curry committed to Tech, likely to take over for Pedulla.