This men’s basketball season definitely was not what Virginia Tech expected. The team failed to make the NCAA March Madness Tournament and failed quick in the ACC basketball team.
Fans expressed frustration, and that also included the team’s head coach Mike Young.
This past week, he openly spoke to fans and alumni, hoping they will continue to support his program.
He acknowledged his own disappointment but is 100 percent committed to turning things around.
His message comes shortly after five players announced they were jumping into the transfer portal. Young also loses two to graduation.
He also lost three assistant coaches, so this will definitely be a rebuilding year.
Assistant coach Christian Webster and recruiting coordinator Blake Wetherington will not return for the 2025-26 season.
Webster was initially hired by former Tech head coach Buzz Williams in 2016 and wrapped up his ninth season with the Hokies in 2024-25. Wetherington joined Young’s staff last July.
Young said this past season did not meet our expectations—the fans nor his.
“I have spent 40 years in coaching, and we are in a tumultuous time in college coaching,” according to Young. “This transfer cycle critical (for Tech), and we are well into it.”
He took over the Tech program in 2019 after a successful stint at Wofford College.
Young has made the NCAA Tournament in seven of the last 13 seasons, including being the fastest Virginia Tech coach to make The Dance.
Steered the Hokies to their first-ever ACC men’s basketball championship by winning four games in four days in Brooklyn, New York in March 2022 and is no stranger to winning Coach of the Year awards, earning five conference Coach of the Year honors since 2010, and was the 2020-21 ACC Coach of the Year.
He is a two-time National Coach of the Year, earning the status in 2010 (Hugh Durham Award) and 2019 (Sporting News). During the 2020-21 season, Young was named one of 15 coaches to the Naismith National Coach of the Year Late Season Watch List.
The Radford native joined the Hokies after a record-setting 17-year tenure as the head coach at Wofford. The Terriers posted a 30-5 overall record in 2018-19, including a perfect 18-0 mark in Southern Conference play, and registered a convincing 84-68 win over Seton Hall in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
The 2019 Sporting News Coach of the Year, Young built the Terriers into one of the Southern Conference’s preeminent programs and a perennial NCAA Tournament participant. He guided Wofford to five NCAA Tournament berths over the past 10 seasons and five Southern Conference championships. In addition to the on-court success of his teams, 100 percent of Young’s student-athletes at Wofford who completed their eligibility graduated.
Young remains confident in the future of his program.
“This is my home. This is my dream job, and I don’t take it for granted every morning when I come to work,” he said.
