Virginia Tech women's basketball gets an interesting ACC/SEC Challenge matchup

Just as the Virginia Tech men's basketball team had, it's been a very interesting early part of the off-season for the women as well. Former head coach Kenny Brooks left two days after the Hokies were eliminated in the second round of the NCAA Tournament by Baylor to take over the same position at Kentucky.

One week after Brooks left, AD Whit Babcock hired Megan Duffy away from Marquette to be his next head coach. Georgia Amoore and Clara Strack both left Blacksburg and followed Brooks to Lexington, Kentucky, which came as no surprise, but it made for a potential scheduling dream matchup for both schools.

Last season was the first annual ACC/SEC Challenge between the two powerful conferences and the Hokies hit the road for a game at LSU in a matchup of the Final Four battle the previous spring. Virginia Tech fell to the Tigers, but with a new matchup on the horizon, the two conferences had an opportunity to give the fans what they wanted, Kentucky at Virginia Tech in December.

It didn't happen.

Wednesday afternoon, the 2024-25 ACC/SEC Challenge schedule for the women was released and for the second straight season, Virginia Tech will find themselves on the road. This time, the Hokies will travel to Georgia to play the Bulldogs, who finished near the bottom of the SEC standings in 2023-24.

This will be an interesting game for the Hokies just over a month into the season before conference play begins, but a Kentucky at Virginia Tech, Kenny Brooks and Georiga Amoore coming home with Clara Strack would have been must-see TV. Apparently, the conferences didn't see it that way.

Kentucky will hit the road to play at North Carolina in the challenge and will pit Brooks against UNC coach Courtney Banghart who had plenty of memorable battles with Brooks and the Hokies over the last few years.