Virginia Tech fans should be happy that a frustrating month of March is finally over

Over the past couple of seasons, the month of March has been a special one for Virginia Tech fans. In 2022, the men's basketball team won four games in four days to capture the ACC Tournament Championship, then last March, the women's basketball team won their first ACC Tournament Championship and the program's first trip to the Final Four.

Expectations were high once again heading into this March with the women primed for another deep ACC and NCAA Tournament run, but things didn't go as planned. In fact, after two fun March's the last two years, things couldn't have gone any worse the last 31 days.

Virginia Tech's forgettable March 2024

It started on March 3 when Elizabeth Kitley went down with a knee injury on March 3 in the third quarter at Virginia on a layup. She left the floor and returned to the bench at the end of the third quarter but never returned to the game. Head coach Kenny Brooks didn't have an update after the game, but his tone and body language showed it wasn't good. After being ruled out of the ACC Tournament a week later, she was ruled out of the NCAA Tournament before their first-round matchup against Marshall on March 22. It was revealed it was a torn ACL. It was not the ending to her storied Virginia Tech career that everyone was hoping for.

Things went from bad to worse when rumors started swirling about Brooks reportedly becoming the top target for the same position at Kentucky. After the Hokies were eliminated in the second round on March 24 against Baylor, two days later, the school announced that Brooks was leaving Blacksburg for Lexington. A big gut punch to say the least.

Two days later, Brooks was introduced at Kentucky and a few hours later, point guard Georgia Amoore said goodbye to Virginia Tech on her Instagram page in what could be described as a not-so-surprising decision. She has one more year of eligibility left and Hokies' fans were hoping she would come back for one more season.

Things didn't go much better on the men's side. After entering the ACC Tournament winners of three straight, the Hokies were bounced in the second-round by Florida State, 86-76, ending any NCAA Tournament hopes they had. In reality, they would have needed a repeat performance run of two seaons ago to have got into the 68-team field.

Virginia Tech accepted a bid to the NIT and beat Richmond in the first round, but was bounced in the second round by Ohio State on March 23. What followed was something that Hokies fans were not ready for and honestly, who would have been?

In the wake of the news of Brooks heading to Kentucky, Mike Young had five returners enter the transfer portal, three starters and two key contributors off the bench. First Lynn Kidd entered the portal and he was followed by Sean Pedulla, MJ Collins, Mylyjael Poteat, and finally Tyler Nickel. Hunter Cattoor and Robbie Beran were out of eligibility, but Poteat announced on Saturday that he's returning to Tech for his fifth and final season in 2024-25.

That means Young has to replace his top seven players for 2024-25 and it's going to have to be done through the transfer portal you get the sense that Virginia Tech's NIL is not the greatest and it's going to be difficult to field a competitive roster for next season. Pedulla said on X that he would leave the door open to return to Blacksburg, but you have to think that there are going to be several suitors for him and he's gone.

With the calendar flipping to April, it ends one of the more frustrating and disappointing months in Virginia Tech athletics. There is likely more tough news to come this month, but if there is one silver lining for Hokies' fans, it's that the annual spring football game is just 12 days away on April 13 at Lane Stadium. There are also the nationally-ranked baseball and softball teams to follow over the next 30 days.