Virginia Tech coach Mike Young gives a promising assessment of his 2024-25 roster

Virginia Tech men's basketball coach Mike Young has seen just about everything during his time on the sidelines as an assistant and head coach. However, when the team's 2023-24 season came to an end in the second round of the NIT at Ohio State in late March, the veteran coach didn't foresee what was coming.

Young would lose his top seven players from this past season's roster, two to graduation and five to the transfer portal, which left him with a roster of players who have seen very little time in college. The only way for Young to put together a roster that is going to be competitive next season was to dive into the transfer portal. He has started the process and still has a ways to go, but he sounded optimistic about what the roster could look like next season.

"It’s a little daunting in my profession — doing it 38 years, 22 as a head coach — and to wake up and have four (returning players) on your roster. That’s scary. But we have rebounded quite nicely, and we’re on the verge, I think, of coming out of it a lot better than when we went into it."

- Mike Young

Virginia Tech fans should be excited that Young feels a lot better than just a month ago, but things have not gone smoothly. Guard Jordan Ivy-Curry committed to the Hokies, but a few days later declared for the 2024 NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility. College of Charleston transfer Ben Burnham and California's Rodney Brown, Jr. committed to Young to fill two needs.

Virginia Tech is not the only school that has seen a lot of players leave the ACC. Duke has been gutted by players entering the portal or declaring for the draft, while Syracuse has lost a lot of key pieces to the portal as well. More are going to come over the next week-plus before it officially closes, but there is still work to be done. Young thinking that Virginia Tech is going to "come out of it a lot better than when we went into it'' is something that Hokies fans need to hear after what has transpired over the last month in Blacksburg.