The offseason was a time of transition for the Virginia Tech women’s basketball team, with three-time ACC Player of the Year Liz Kitley using up her eligibility to play in the WNBA, Kenny Brooks taking the head coaching job at Kentucky, All-American point guard Georgia Amoore and junior cornerback Clara Strzok both transferring to Kentucky, and Kayla King and Olivia Samiel finishing their collegiate careers.
The Hokies then hired Marquette University head coach Megan Duffy to replace Brooks and lead the team into a new era, looking to build on Brooks’ winning foundation. Since then, Duffy has mainly inherited a lot of talented personnel, reassembled her freshman class and has been busy putting together the team for the 2024-25 season.
The Hokies have a couple of veterans in Matilda Eck and Rose Michaud, but aside from those two and Utah transfer Lani White, all eight Hokies players are freshmen or sophomores. There are also three sophomores in Tech’s projected lineup. With the offseason transition likely to continue into the transition season, making the NCAA Tournament and avoiding the bubble are two realistic and fair goals for this team.
So let’s take a look at my premature predictions for the starting lineup.
PG: Samiha Sufren
SG: Carly Wenzel
In the backcourt, Carly Wenzel will assume the scoring role, and the battle for the point guard spot is likely to be a melee between the Hokies’ two point guards.
Let’s start with Wenzel, who redshirted during that season and is the lone remaining player from the Hokies’ 2023 Final Four roster.
