Following an elimination at the hands of Ohio State in the NIT last March, Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach Mike Young went through a mass exodus of players from Blacksburg. Not only did the veteran coach lose players who are out of eligibility, but he saw several key players who had eligibility to return bolt in the transfer portal. That left him and his staff going through the portal to put together a roster for the 2024-25 season.
When the season began, there were a lot of questions surrounding the Hokies in terms of who was going to play and just how the season was going to unfold. Through the non-conference schedule, Virginia Tech went 5-6 and entering the ACC portion of their schedule, it didn’t look like they were going to be a team that won many games.
This season, with the addition of Stanford, SMU, and California, the conference decided that the three teams that finish in the bottom three spots will not qualify for the ACC Tournament. It would have been easy to see the Hokies in that bottom tier, but they exceeded expectations with a young and inexperienced roster. Heading into the final week of the regular season, Tech has secured a spot in Charlotte and has won eight of their 10 games so far.
Some younger players have shown promise for the future, and with a limited NIL fund, it would be hard to envision them staying in Blacksburg, but it appears that his NIL fund is about to get bigger.
Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68 reported Monday that Young was returning to Blacksburg next season and will do so with a bigger NIL package. Young returning is something that he hinted at last month, but getting a bigger NIL is huge in terms of building a roster for next season. Compared to other schools in the ACC, the NIL package he has now is barely competitive for Young, but it’s clear that AD Whit Babcock and the higher ups at Virginia Tech are taking notice of the season they are having, which is exceeding expectations.
This should give Young the ability to retain some of the current players on the roster while also hitting the transfer portal and making more additions. In the current state of college sports, NIL and the transfer portal, some players are likely going to leave when it opens later this month, but a bigger NIL package for a coach who has won in the ACC is big development for the program.