Three Takeaways from Virginia Tech Men's Basketball's Exhibition Loss to Duquesne

What's there to discern from Saturday's exhibition showdown?

Virginia Tech Athletics

On Saturday, Virginia Tech men's basketball hosted Duquesne for a preseason exhibition. They lost 83-81, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Duquesne is a strong basketball team, and the Hokies led for 33 minutes, but were having struggles at the end of each half. 

Here are my three takeaways from the game:

BHam is cooking, y'all 🔥🔥🔥

😮‍💨 19 pts (game high)
😮‍💨 7-13 FG pic.twitter.com/KQ91PXjYl9

— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) October 25, 2025

No. 1: Ben Hammond could be a star in the making.

Hammond had a fantastic game in the preseason loss. He started at point guard and had arguably the best game of any Hokie on the night. Hammond scored 22 points on a fantastic 7-14 from the field and 3-4 from beyond the arch. 

Obviously, as a guard those numbers are likely not going to keep up, but if the Hokies have a strong shooter that they didn’t expect to, it could elevate this team to a next level. 

Last season, Hammond was strong as a freshman, averaging 5.6 points, 1.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists per night, shooting 41.9% from the field. The guard started in 17 contests; his best performance on the season came against Syracuse, where he tallied 21 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, going 7-for-8 from the field and 2-for-3 from deep.

"Well, just growing pains out of him and he had a really good freshman year,” said Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young to the media in September when asked about Hammond's progression. “Just better, stronger, playing the spot better. He'll play with [Neoklis] Avdalas quite a bit. I have played with two point guards on the floor at the same time often. I never thought there's anything wrong with that. You got two ball handlers and two guys that can distribute and make others better. You'll see a number of lineups like that, [Izaiah] Pasha included."

The Hokies know they have a star in Neoklis Avdalas; could there be a second emerging in Hammond?

No. 2: Free throws could be an issue this year.

Over the offseason, Mike Young stressed nothing more than the team’s ability to shoot from beyond the arch, but they looked more than capable in the exhibition, going 9-22. The story when it comes to shooting is the performance from the free throw line.

The Hokies shot a strong 29 free throws, but they only made 16 of them. Tobi Lawal and Amani Hansberry headlined that, combining to go 4-12, with all four makes coming from Lawal. This isn’t something that I’d be concerned with for Virginia Tech. Aside from the two big men, Virginia Tech went 12-17, which is a solid spot to be. 

Hansberry and Lawal shot 75% and 64% last year respectively, and I don’t think that Mike Young and Co. will be losing sleep over what I expect to be a one-off poor performance from the charity stripe.

No. 3: Ditto for turnovers

To me, this is the biggest standout from the matchup on Saturday. Virginia Tech had 14 assists and a troublesome 19 turnovers. 11 of those miscues came from three of their starters. Historically, Young's squads have had consistent turnover troubles, though he stresses against it.

This team has just four returners and while three of them are effective locks as starters, there are still a plethora of newcomers on the team. That likely contributed to the turnovers being such an issue in this contest.

Virginia Tech is a team that needs time to gel, both as a unit and looking historically at Young's rosters. While I am slightly concerned about the awfully high turnover number, I don’t think that it will be a consistent one. Hammond and Johnson both had an uncharacteristic three turnovers; the two both averaged under 1.8 per game last season. 

The majority non-conference schedule gives the Hokies a month against tune-up competition, sans the Hokies' games against Providence, South Carolina, George Mason and the Battle 4 Atlantis. During that month, it would be surprising if Young doesn’t make it a focal point to take care of the ball and avoid crucial mistakes, especially live ball turnovers that create deflating fast-break opportunities.