If you are not happy with the way the Virginia Tech 2024-25 men’s basketball season went, you’re not alone. Veteran head coach Mike Young is not happy either. The Hokies are in Charlotte beginning Tuesday afternoon for the first round of the ACC Tournament and seeded 10th, Virginia Tech will play 15th-seeded California for a second time this year.
Sitting at 13-18, the Hokies' season will come to an end whenever they lose and as is the case every year, all the attention will turn toward next season. Just what that ends up looking like remains to be seen. How many current Virginia Tech players will hit the transfer portal? Will there be a mass exodus like last March? According to a report last week from Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68, Young is expected to have a greater NIL package than he had this season. We can only hope.
Young said last month that he all but expects to return to Blacksburg next season and Goodman reported that with his potential new NIL package. It’s not surprising, but ahead of the Hokies game with the Golden Bears, the former Wofford coach had a quote that should get Tech fans excited.
Mike Young pledges to turn things around for Virginia Tech fans
In Charlotte, Young hopes the Hokies can stay longer than one game at the Spectrum Center, but when they are eliminated, he will be eager to get back home and begin turning around his program.
If there is anything that this year has told us, it’s that Mike Young can still coach. The fact that he took this team, which was basically brand new from the portal and incoming freshman, and got them to 8-12 in the ACC says a lot. I know, the conference stinks this year and maybe they should have won 10 games, but given what happened with the portal after last season and the way things began this season, getting to Charlotte is a feat within itself.
If they happen to be a one-and-done, so be it, but getting there with a young roster and experiencing the tournament first-hand is big for a program as Miami, Boston College, and North Carolina State are not there after finishing in the bottom three spots. Raise your hand if you thought the Hokies were going to end up there this season? I bet a lot of you did.
Mike Young can cook and getting him a bigger NIL package will only help. There are several young and promising players from this year that the staff needs to make every effort possible to retain. If he can do that, then there will be a much better club next season. Of course, along with incoming freshmen, he’ll have to dip into the portal as well as he did last year. If Young has more NIL resources, then they shouldn’t be this down for too long under Mike Young, who is going to do everything he can to get the program back to where Hokies’ fans expect it.