Virginia Tech Basketball: 2020-21 season preview for the Hokies

Starting Lineup

The Hokies return three of five starters from a year ago in Wabissa Bede, Tyrece Radford, and Nahiem Alleyne with the departures of Landers Nolley II and P.J. Horne. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Radford come off the bench with the addition of Cartier Diarra from Kansas State.

Diarra is another shooter on the wing much like Alleyne, that joins the Hokies as a grad transfer from Kansas State and fits right in with what Mike Young and company want to do: shoot 3-pointers.

In three seasons at Kansas State, Diarra shot 34.5 percent from 3-point range while averaging 1.2 makes and 3.4 attempts per contest. During the 2019-20 campaign, he averaged 5.2 3-pointers made per game, a number that’s likely to go up with a bigger role in the Hokies offense.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if Bede averaged eight assists or more per game after dishing out a career-high 5.5 per contest in 2019-20. Entering his senior season, Bede will have Diarra, Alleyne, and most likely Justyn Mutts and Keve Aluma to rely on in the starting rotation, much better odds than a season ago.

Alleyne posted 8.8 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game while starting in 27 of 32 games in 2019-20. He was another freshman that caught on in a hurry shooting 38.9 percent from the floor.

Mutts joins the squad after producing 12.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks per game this past season at Delaware. While his numbers don’t give a true indication of how he’ll perform in the ACC, they give a solid outlook on his ability to do multiple things on the floor in the frontcourt., especially rebounding. The Hokies finished 12th in the ACC (33.1 rpg) in rebounds per game in 2019-20.

Aluma sat out the 2019-20 season after transferring from Wofford to join Mike Wofford in Blacksburg, After getting acclimated to life in the ACC this past year, he’ll join the rotation as another veteran that should improve their rebounding presence on the glass.