Virginia Tech Men's Basketball Projected As Potential 2027 NCAA Tournament Team By National Outlet

One outlet thinks that the Hokies stand as a tournament-level team.

Virginia Tech Athletics

We're still just under five months away from Virginia Tech men's basketball's 2026-27 season kicking off, but the team itself is almost done taking shape. The Hokies return just five players from their 2025-26 team, a byproduct of the squad missing out on the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight season after aspirations of breaking the drought.

Virginia Tech lost Neoklis Avdalas, the first five-star recruit for the program since Dorian Finney-Smith back in 2011, to North Carolina. Avdalas, who scored 33 against Providence Nov. 8 and 30 against Western Carolina Dec. 11, was flashy at points but inconsistent at others. In league play, Avdalas struggled, shooting 35.1% from the field and averaging 10.8 points per game — fifth-most on the team.

Of the seven highest scorers in league play — guard Ben Hammond (14.9ppg), forward Amani Hansberry (13.1ppg), guard Jailen Bedford (13.0ppg), forward Tobi Lawal (12.1ppg), Avdalas (10.8ppg), center Christian Gurdak (5.7ppg) and guard Jaden Schutt (5.2ppg) — Virginia Tech is set to return just two: Hammond and Hansberry. Bedford and Lawal have exhausted their eligibility, while Avdalas, Gurdak and Schutt transferred out to North Carolina, Rutgers and Kansas State, respectively.

Still, the door isn't closed for Virginia Tech to be competitive in 2026-27. The Hokies retained Hansberry and landed a plethora of experienced guards in the transfer portal, including Florida Atlantic's Isaiah Elohim and Oklahoam State's Jaylen Curry. Virginia Tech also landed Oklahoma forward Kuol Atak, and it earned portal commitments from several experienced immediate-impact options, such as Ethan Copeland (Stetson) and Miles Heide (San Diego State).

CBS Sports' Isaac Trotter echoed that sentiment that Virginia Tech can be competitive next season, placing the Hokies as a tournament team in his way-too-early ACC 2026-27 basketball tier rankings. Here's what he had to say on the Hokies, who he ranked No. 6:

sneaky-good spot ✅@CBSSports x @Isaac__Trotter pic.twitter.com/VEnYPzSMmD

— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) June 4, 2026

"Virginia Tech is in a sneaky-good spot, even after losing the talented Neo Avdalas to UNC. You could make the case that retaining point guard Ben Hammond and warrior forward Amani Hansberry means Virginia Tech kept its two best players from ACC play last year. Hammond and Hansberry are also wired to be ridiculously competitive, which you want to invest in and could lead to some high-floor outcomes.

The portal class is more serviceable than spectacular, but Virginia Tech could be one of the better offensive-rebounding teams in the league with Hansberry (10.9 offensive rebound rate, 92nd percentile) and San Diego State transfer Miles Heide (12.9 offensive rebound rate, 96th percentile) on the floor together. It added a little shooting (Copeland and Atak), size (Sagnia) and on-ball juice (Curry, Elohim), too. I worry about Virginia Tech scaling up against the top ACC dawgs, but the guard play and the rebounding edge should help the Hokies win the games it's supposed to. That can get you into the Big Dance."

At the time of writing, Virginia Tech's first known game is set for Nov. 3 against Coppin State.