ACC Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2023-24 season

10. Virginia Tech Hokies

Last season: 19-15, 8-12 in the ACC

The Virginia Tech Hokies return after finishing 11th place in the conference looking to be a whole lot more competitive with another wave of transfer portal additions. They’ve got a strong core of returners in Sean Pedulla, Hunter Cattoor, Rodney Rice and M.J. Collins to go along with the additions of Mekhi Long (Old Dominion), Robbie Beran (Northwestern) and Tyler Nickel (UNC).

Pedulla and Cattoor should be a top backcourt duo this upcoming season. Cattoor is healthy heading into a full season while Pedulla returns after showing he could hold his own in the starting rotation. He put up 15.0 ppg, 3.8 apg, 3.6 rpg and 1.2 spg on 34.4 percent shooting from deep in head coach Mike Young’s 3-point shooting offense. Look for him to be a key cog once again while finding the new faces out of the transfer portal to make plays as well.

Long should fill the void left by Justyn Mutts given his production at Old Dominion. He’s a versatile presence at 6-foot-7 who should operate at either forward role after producing 10.7 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 1.5 spg and 1.3 apg on 35.9 percent shooting from deep and 43.8 percent shooting from the field. The wildcard will be the addition of Beran. He joins the Hokies after spending the past four seasons in the Big Ten with Northwestern. He should bolster their frontcourt with the loss of Grant Basile given his abilities at 6-foot-9 to operate at the stretch-forward role.