Why Virginia Tech is stuck between a rock & a hard place with Elizabeth Kitley's injury

Over the last couple of days, there has been only one thing on the minds of Virginia Tech fans: how is Elizabeth Kitley’s knee? By now, everyone knows what happened with just over six minutes remaining in the third quarter at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville when she went down with a knee injury and did not return on Sunday night against Virginia.

She walked out of the locker room at the end of the third quarter and sat on the bench in uniform for the fourth quarter, but did not check back into the game. Following the game, head coach Kenny Brooks' emotion in his postgame press conference was evident when he spoke. Monday he met with the media ahead of this week’s ACC Tournament and did not have an update on his two-time ACC Player of the Year. 

“We don’t know anything yet,’’ Brooks said. “We’re just waiting and praying for good results.’’

We all are and I can bet Hokies X is constantly refreshing their app looking to see if there are any updates. If there is one thing, however, we have learned about Virginia Tech is that they stay rather quiet on injuries and that’s not a bad thing. All you have to do and look back to January when Georgia Amoore went down against Duke. She missed the next game, before returning and not much was said.

This time, Virginia Tech and Brooks are stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of Kitley’s injury. Tech’s resume speaks for itself and it is deserving of a Top 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament in a couple of weeks, but the committee has the right to consider an injury if Kitley is out and that could drop the Hokies in the seeding. It might not get them a weekend in Blacksburg, as sad as that would be.

Virginia Tech might take a page out of Notre Dame’s book last season when Olivia Miles went down with an injury in the final game of the 2022-23 regular season. She missed the ACC Tournament, but the school thought that she might return for the NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame ended up as a No. 3 seed and hosted the first weekend in South Bend, but 24 hours before playing Southern Utah in the first round, they announced she was going to miss the tournament. 

Tuesday after winning their third consecutive ACC Player of the Year Award she appeared on ACC PM on the ACC Network and seemed in good spirits. It is still up in the air whether or not we’ll see her on the court later this week in Greensboro, but Virginia Tech is stuck between a rock and a hard place with the NCAA Tournament seeding a week from Sunday with her injury. Of course, it can be a moot point and she returns, but if not sometimes there is a reason less is said than more.

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