The season is over. No, you read that correctly. The once-promising 2025-26 college basketball season is over for the Virginia Tech Hokies before Selection Sunday. Sure, the Hokies are still technically on the bubble, but that’s not reality. Any chance of an NCAA Tournament bid was lost on Tuesday when the Hokies lost to Wake Forest in the first round of the ACC Tournament.
With the bubble burst, it appeared the Hokies would be on their way to the NIT again, where they’d likely host multiple games and be one of the tournament’s top seeds. That will not happen, as Virginia Tech prematurely declined a potential NIT bid.
The team’s official X account put out a statement:
It’s interesting that the team mentioned injuries. Leading scorer Amani Hansberry missed Tuesday’s game against Wake after suffering a leg injury in the regular-season finale at Virginia last Saturday. The team called Hansberry day-to-day. But if his injury is more serious than Tech let on, that would’ve been a serious postseason blow.
Sophomore guard Tyler Johnson recently returned after suffering a foot injury in December. In the four games he has played since his return, Johnson has played 2, 8, 15, and 21 minutes, respectively. Tech has also been without freshman forward Sin’Cere Jones due to injury. Jones is a redshirt candidate.
So, are injuries why Tech chose not to participate? We’ll never know, but that sure doesn’t sound like something head coach Mike Young would do. Here he is, two years ago, discussing playing in the NIT, via David Teel.
Interesting.
Regardless of the reasoning, it’s another disappointment on top of a disappointing season, which ended with a 19-13 record. The Hokies lost multiple games in the final seconds, which likely cost them an NCAA bid. Multiple late-game collapses were part of the issue, and heralded freshman Neoklis Avdalas was almost a liability at times once ACC play began.