When the month of March started, there was still a good shot of the Virginia Tech men's basketball team finding its way off the NCAA Tournament bubble and into the 68-team field. They began the month with a win at home over Boston College before a trip to Charlottesville for the regular-season final against the Cavaliers.
After falling behind early, the Hokies fell but fell short. They opened up ACC Tournament play a couple of days later in Charlotte against Wake Forest. They still had a heartbeat for the NCAA Tournament and needed to begin the conference tourney with a win over the Demon Deacons. In typical Virginia Tech fashion in 2025-26, they had a game-winning putback at the buzzer rim out and went on to lose in overtime. That ended any NCAA Tournament dreams they had.
Three days later, the school announced on its X account that the season was over and the Hokies were not going to play in the NIT and turned down a bid. A pretty rough look to a promising season for Mike Young and his staff.
Neoklis Avdalas & Christian Gurdak enter the Transfer Portal
In what was the least unexpected news to come out of Blacksburg after the season ended, freshman guard Neoklis Avdalas announced that he was entering the Transfer Portal. That ends what started as a promising first-year at Virginia Tech, turned into a frustrating one.
The telling point came against Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament. Avdalas spent the final seven and a half minutes of regulation on the bench and never got off of it in overtime in a must-win game. The writing was on the wall. If he goes somewhere and reaches his potential, it'll be a rough look for Young and his staff. On Tuesday, it was reported that a fellow freshman, Christian Gurdak, is also entering the portal.
A lot of questions to be answered in April
Avdalas isn't the only Hokies player from this year's team to enter the portal. Delaware transfer Izaiah Pasha is also leaving after one season with the Hokies. He was buried on the bench this season, and when he did play, he didn't play as well as a lot of people had hoped.
There are questions surrounding players such as Ben Hammond, Amani Hansberry, Tyler Johnson, Jaden Schutt, and others who have decisions to make for next season. Losing any of those players or even multiple ones could be devastating for the 2026-27 season.