Virginia Tech Men's Basketball Sets Sights on Saturday Showdown with Notre Dame

The Hokies look to bring their league record back to .500 today.

Virginia Tech Athletics

After stumbling in a 77-76 loss to SMU on Jan. 14, Virginia Tech men's basketball is back in action today, squaring off against Notre Dame. It's a prime opportunity for the Hokies to bounce back and equalize their ACC record after ceding a game-winning half-court triple to Mustangs guard Boopie Miller.

This group sticks together. See you in Cassell.

🤝 @CarilionClinic pic.twitter.com/DLVw1hgjrG

— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 16, 2026

"That’s a kick in the rear end for all of us," said Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young on this week's Tech Talk Live show. "I was really excited for how well we played. Going back and watching it again, even more so. Jailen Bedford was phenomenal. His tenacity, his toughness.

"Our team defense has taken a real step in a great direction. We got outrebounded seven in the first half, we outrebounded them in the second half. We’re playing good basketball. You better have a short memory. We’ve got a Notre Dame team coming in here that’s formidable, we’ll have to play well. You have to keep moving forward. We’ve got a lot of wins to look forward to."

Virginia Tech held a four-point lead over the Mustangs with 29 seconds left to spare; however, the Hokies coughed up the ball on an inbound attempt from forward Amani Hansberry to wing Neoklis Avdalas. That opened up the door for SMU to close the gap to two; subsequently, guard Ben Hammond and forward Tobi Lawal each went to the free-throw line for one-and-ones. They each missed; on the latter, SMU came down with the defensive board, setting up the game-winner from Miller.

Thus, Virginia Tech endured its third loss by way of one possession and by way of a game-winning triple. Every game since Dec. 21 has been determined by a possession in regulation or has gone to overtime; in that span, the Hokies have gone 3-3. Their wins are over Elon (82-81, OT), Virgina (95-85, 3OT) and California (78-75), while their losses are to Wake Forest (81-78), Stanford (69-68) and now, SMU (77-76). Those defeats aren't season-ending, and the Hokies still have 13 ACC games to contend with, starting with Notre Dame today.

The Fighting Irish are on the weaker end of the conference, though they're not far off a squad like Virginia Tech. Entering today's contest, Notre Dame ranks at No. 74, 19 spots behind Virginia Tech. In Ken Pomeroy's metrics, the Hokies sit at No. 55 there, too, with Notre Dame 16 positions back at No. 71.

This season, the Fighting Irish kicked off their ACC slate with an anemic 47-40 victory before losing to Cal 72-71 on a four-point play. Notre Dame then suffered consecutive losses to Clemson (76-61) and Miami (81-69) and consequently enters today's game against the Hokies on a three-game skid.

Last year, Virginia Tech beat Notre Dame in Indiana, 65-63, in a comeback victory. That day, Lawal notched a double-double, accumulating 15 points and 10 rebounds. The Hokies took over the lead with 3:06 to go for the first time since the 18:12 mark and didn't yield it for the duration of the game.

That victory came despite Virginia Tech shooting 6-for-31 (19.4%) from deep and Notre Dame guard Markus Burton pouring in 23 points against the Hokies. Burton will be out, according to CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein, today; he has not played since Dec. 5 due to an ankle injury sustained vs TCU. Burton subsequently underwent ankle surgery on Dec. 10. Prior to his injury, Burton was averaging 18.5 points, 3.7 assists and 1.6 steals a night.

In his stead, forward Jaden Haralson has assumed the mantle of primary scorer; through 16 played games, he's totaled 15.1 points per game and 3.4 rebounds. Guard Braeden Shrewsberry has been stellar, as well, averaging 11.3 points per game and shooting 44.6% from deep. However, the Hokies shut him down last year; the then-sophomore missed all eight of his looks from the field and ended the night with two points.

Virginia Tech will be lacking forward Tyler Johnson for Saturday's showdown, though Young says that the Hokies will have Johnson soon.

"We’ll have him soon," Young said. "He’s getting closer. He looks great. That additional piece with his toughness, rebounding and all of the intangibles that go into the game that fans don’t recognize. We’re going to get him back soon, and we’ll welcome him with open arms."

Though Virginia Tech has dropped three of its last four games, the season, again, is by no means over. The Hokies will only be a third into their ACC slate after today's game against Notre Dame and they've already won all four of their games that have gone to overtime.

"I don’t think it’s too hard," Young said. "There’s nothing you can do about it. We’ve won four overtime games. Virginia in 3OT. Cal was tight, and we found a way to get out of there. We should’ve won the Stanford game. Experiences that we continue to learn from. Need to win more of them."

Virginia Tech's contest against the Fighting Irish tips off at noon ET on the ACC Network. We'll have you covered all day with live score updates, the transcript from head coach Mike Young, game takeaways and the recap of what happened.