Virginia Tech basketball in the mix for four-star Class of 2025 Virginia de-commit

When Tony Bennett announced that he was stepping down as head men's basketball coach at Virginia, one of his top commits in the Class of 2025 de-committed from the Cavaliers. Since re-opening his recruiting, Chance Mallory is one of the top members of his class who is hearing from five schools.

Mallory, who is the 808th-ranked player in the ESPN100, is hearing from five schools the most who are looking to land the recruit for next season, and in the mix are Mike Young and Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech in the mix for four-star Class of 2025 men's basketball recruit Chance Mallory

Before his commitment to Virginia, Young and the Hokies were involved heavily in Mallory's recruiting before he chose the Cavaliers over Virginia Tech. Young is back in the mix after Bennett retired. Also in the mix is Virginia still, along with Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Maryland.

The Charlottesville native is the 49th-ranked player according to On3 and here is what On3's Jamie Shaw wrote about Mallory last year.

"Each time that Chance Mallory took the court he made plays. The compactly built lead guard plays with the utmost confidence on each possession. He has a strong handle that gets him to his spots and the 5-foot-10 Mallory carries range that extends out to 35-plus feet. In the games I watched during this event, Mallory displayed an understanding of when to score and when to distribute. Good things seemed to happen when he had the ball in his hands and initiated the offense. Mallory is also a uniquely good rebounder for his position."

Currently in the Class of 2025, Virginia Tech has commitments from Christian Gurdak and Sin'Cere Jones, but Mallory is someone who could come in and play right away as a freshman like Ben Hammond has done this year. Tyler Johnson has also impressed this season for Young as he is potentially building a new young core for the future if the transfer portal doesn't come into play.