Virginia Tech heads into ACC Tipoff with plenty still unresolved, and that starts in the frontcourt. Head coach Mike Young is scheduled to speak in Charlotte, N.C. tomorrow alongside guards Ben Hammond and Tyler Johnson and forward Amani Hansberry, and the biggest question hanging over the Hokies is simple: who fills the gaps left behind?
The roster is again built around newcomers, with only five returners from the 2025-26 team: Hammond, Johnson, Hansberry, forward Sin'Cere Jones and center Solomon Davis. Even among that group, only Hammond, Johnson and Hansberry logged more than 40% of the season. Christian Gurdak’s move to Rutgers left a clear opening inside, and Virginia Tech needs help there in more than one way - on the glass, around the rim and in the scoring column.
That makes the list of possible answers worth watching closely. San Diego State transfer Miles Heide arrives after averaging 5.6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
Davis, meanwhile, redshirted in 2025-26 while getting used to the college workload. Then there’s NC State transfer Musa Sagnia, who grabbed eight rebounds in 17 minutes against then-No.
1 Duke last season and had five games with at least seven boards.
For all the uncertainty in the paint, Hammond gives Virginia Tech a known commodity in the backcourt. He broke out at the start of ACC play last season, scoring 30 points in the Hokies’ 95-85 overtime win over then-No.
21 UVa. on Dec. 31, 2025.
He finished year two at 13.2 points per game and added 3.2 assists a night, while his assist-to-turnover ratio climbed from 1.2 in 2024-25 to 2.2 in 2025-26.
The stretch run showed how steady Hammond had become. Over Virginia Tech’s final 24 games, he was held below 10 points only twice and reached 20 or more five times.
He had 24 against Syracuse, 20 against Georgia Tech and then closed with back-to-back 20-point outings. Against then-No.
13 Virginia on March 7, he scored 21 points on 7-for-15 shooting, including 6-for-9 inside the arc, though he missed all but one of his six three-point tries. Three days later, he put up 23 points in the season finale at Wake Forest, making seven of 17 shots in a 95-89 overtime loss.
Virginia Tech finished 19-13 overall and 8-10 in the ACC, missing the NCAA Tournament for a fourth straight year. If that streak is going to end, the Hokies will need both better production from the players already in place and some help from the newcomers. Hammond’s growth could be central to that push.
With Neoklis Avdalas now at North Carolina, Virginia Tech also has to answer another obvious question: who becomes the go-to scorer? Hammond showed he can carry a bigger load, but can he handle being both the main scorer and the lead ball-handler? Hansberry is another candidate after leading the team with 14.3 points per game last season while working as a split option between the four and the five.
This year will be the first time Hansberry isn’t a newcomer at a school, after one season each at Illinois and West Virginia before arriving at Virginia Tech for 2025-26. He also has a built-in advantage in assistant coach Chester Frazier, who has been with him throughout his college career.
The next step for Hansberry may come down to discipline. He fouled out of five games last season and committed at least four fouls in 14 of Virginia Tech’s 32 games. If he can clean that up - cutting down on reaching and sharpening his defensive footwork - he should have a better chance to stay on the floor and stay involved in the Hokies’ plans.
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James Franklin has already felt the sting of the recent losses, and this game offers another chance to show whether the Hokies can steady themselves against a familiar opponent. Cal has its own key players and strategic changes to lean on, which makes the rematch feel less like a reset and more like a test of adjustments on both sidelines. For Virginia Tech, the questions are not just about execution in one game, but about whether the team can finally turn a difficult run into something more sustainable. [Read more 🡒]