Virginia Tech men's basketball will host Richmond in the first round of the NIT

At the beginning of the season, the Virginia Tech men's basketball team had visions of returning to the NCAA Tournament after missing out in 2023. They settled for an NIT bid but wanted to take the next step this season and get back to the big dance.

As the season went along, the Hokies struggled in ACC play, finished 10-10, but lost some games that they should have won, mainly two against Miami and at Notre Dame. It's not a given that even if they won those games that they would have got in, however, with early season wins over NCAA Tournament teams Iowa State (Big 12 champion), Vermont (America East champion), and Boise State, the Hokies had one heck of a résumé.

In the ACC Tournament last week, Virginia Tech needed to win the tournament to get an NCAA bid, but they dropped their first game, 86-76, to Florida State in the second round and were left with nothing but the NIT.

Virginia Tech gets NIT bid

Sunday night, Virginia Tech got a bid to the NIT and will play in the lower left bracket as the No. 3 seed and will host Richmond (23-9) out of the Atlantic-10 at Cassell Coliseum. The rest of the bracket is filled out like this,

• No. 8: Appalachian State at No. 1 Wake Forest
• No. 5: Xavier at No. 4: Georgia
• No. 6: Richmond at No. 3: Virginia Tech
• No. 7: Cornell at No. 2: Ohio State

Just three ACC teams are in the field, Boston College is the third team, after some teams had their NCAA Tournament bubble burst over the weekend, but several teams, including Pittsburgh, Washington, St. John's, Indiana, and Mississippi, declined to play in the NIT instead opting to get a jump start on recruiting for next season. Syracuse was a surprise team that did not make the field.