Virginia Tech's Stock Report After 76-66 Upset Win Over Clemson

The Hokies posted a 76-66 upset win over No. 20 Clemson last night.

Virginia Tech Athletics (Nathaneal Birchfield)

Some games can define seasons. Though six contests remain in Virginia Tech men's basketball's 2025-26 season, there's a chance that its Wednesday billing against Clemson — an upset 76-66 victory — could shape up to have done exactly that.

another one for our resume 😏 pic.twitter.com/f2ZoQu3rGF

— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) February 12, 2026

It's hard to argue against Virginia Tech's stock being up, as of right now, at least in the immediate short-term. It's set the Hokies (18-7, 6-6 ACC) back on the path towards being inside the NCAA Tournament field on ESPN's Bracketology.

Virginia Tech was ranked as the fifth team out of the 68-team bracket entering the clash. Now? It's just two spots out, sitting at No. 70 in Lunardi's latest projections as of this morning.

The Hokies also captured their wins despite struggles on the road in league play. Virginia Tech entered the contest with a 1-4 record in league play, with its lone triumph a 76-74 victory over Syracuse. The Orange currently sit with a 14-11 overall record and are No. 68 in the NET rankings.

Virginia Tech claimed its third Quadrant 1 victory of the season, a result that will stand if Syracuse can remain in the NET's top-75. Though the Hokies possess a 3-7 record against Quadrant 1 foes, they now sport victories over a pair of top-35 schools, coming against Virginia (No. 18) and Clemson (No. 33). Virginia Tech jumped up five spots from No. 59 following its victory over the Tigers, who slipped four spots to No. 32.

The Hokies' victory Wednesday was anchored by a pair of guards: graduate student Jailen Bedford and sophomore Ben Hammond. Bedford logged 16 first-half points against Clemson en route to a team-high 23 points. Bedford went 8-of-14 from the field, knocking down four of his five looks from deep.

Then, there was Hammond, who poured in 19 points — all but two of which came in the second half. The two ultimately combined to shoot 13-of-25 (52%), part of a strong shooting day for the Hokies, who shot a combined 52% as a team.

The three-ball was highly effective for Virginia Tech, as well. The Hokies made 11 of their 21 (52.4%) three-point attempts, sinking 7-of-11 (63.6%) in the opening 20 minutes.

Though the Hokies were outscored 35-7 in bench points, that statistic comes with a large asterisk. 32 of those Clemson bench points came from Nick Davidson and Ace Buckner, who went 7-for-9 and 6-for-9, respectively, for 16 points each. Moreover, the rest of the team, sans Davidson and Buckner, shot a drab 32.4% and discounting center Carter Welling's 7-for-11 day, Virginia Tech held all of Clemson's scorers besides Welling, Davidson and Buckner, to 5-of-26 shooting and 15 total points.

The Hokies are back in action Saturday, Feb. 14, hosting Florida State at 2 p.m. ET. The game will be available for viewing on the ACC Network as Virginia Tech looks to claim its second back-to-back win streak in league play, joining a two-game stretch vs. Notre Dame (Jan. 17) and Syracuse (Jan. 21).