Tag: Virginia Tech

Texas A&M’s Tyrece Radford in OKC for presumed predraft workout with Thunder

Texas A&M’s Tyrece Radford in OKC for presumed predraft workout with Thunder.

The calendar has flipped to June, which means NBA teams are intensifying their predraft process and hosting players for workouts and visits. The 2024 NBA draft will take place from June 26-27.

The Oklahoma City Thunder enter this year’s class with a sole draft pick of the No. 12 selection. OKC was gifted the free lottery pick via the Houston Rockets.

The Thunder will host several meetings with draft prospects in the coming weeks. This includes players outside the lottery range as OKC will likely seek to add undrafted free agents or even buy back into the second round if it likes someone enough.

One possibility is Texas A&M guard Tyrece Radford. He posted on social media he was in OKC for a presumed predraft workout with the Thunder.

The 25-year-old played five college seasons from 2019-24. He spent the first two years at Virginia Tech before he transferred to Texas A&M for the final three years.

In 31 games last season, Radford averaged 16.5 points on 41.1% shooting, 6.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists. He shot 28% from 3 on four attempts. He is a bit of an undersized guard at 6-foot-3, 190 pounds.

Radford will likely be an undrafted free agent target. He has a shot to join the Thunder’s summer league squad and possibly be added to the G League’s OKC Blue roster for next season if he impresses enough.

A full list of 2024 NBA draft prospects that have worked out or visited the Thunder in the predraft process can be viewed here.

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Notre Dame extends offer to 2025 Massachusetts small forward

Hope the Irish get him.

Even with the 2024-25 season months away from tipping off, Notre Dame remains focused on the distant future. After all, you need to have new players all the time in order for your program to have a future.

While there are no commits for the Irish’s 2025 recruiting class yet, they’re going to do everything they can to give themselves as many options as possible. One of them apparently is 6-foot-6 small forward recruit Ryder Frost of Beverly, Massachusetts since he posted the following on social media:

Frost, the fifth-ranked 2025 Massachusetts recruit according to 247Sports, already has offers from over a dozen other schools. In fact, Frost has been offered by many ACC programs in only the past couple of days: Syracuse, Wake Forest, NC State, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.

So the Irish have their work cut out for them as far as landing Frost. With luck, that work will pay off.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Wisconsin basketball top transfer target commits to Virginia Tech

Wisconsin basketball top transfer target commits to Virginia Tech

Wisconsin basketball transfer portal target Jaden Schutt committed to Virginia Tech on Saturday.

The former Duke guard was one of the top transfers on the Badgers’ radar this offseason. But Wisconsin landed Missouri guard John Tonje and Central Arkansas guard Camren Hunter in the last few weeks, eliminating any chance of Schutt joining the program.

Related: Wisconsin basketball 2024-25 starting lineup and rotation with latest transfer addition

The 6-foot-5 shooting guard entered the transfer portal after two years with the Blue Devils. He averaged 2.1 points and 6.9 minutes per game as a freshman in 2022-23, but was forced to redshirt in 2023-24 after suffering an injury in the fall.

The former top class of 2022 recruit is currently 247Sports’ No. 231 overall transfer and No. 49 shooting guard.

Schutt joins a Virginia Tech program that is coming off consecutive 19-15 seasons. It went on an impressive six-year run from 2016-2022 and is looking to return to that form.

Wisconsin has landed three transfers this offseason: Tonje, Hunter and Northern Illinois power forward Xavier Amos. The team is set to enter 2024-25 with a deep backcourt rotation led by the two transfers, Max Klesmit, John Blackwell and Daniel Freitag, plus a promising frontcourt trio of Steven Crowl, Nolan Winter and Amos.

Greg Gard and his staff are still working to find one more big man before the 2024-25 season. The team’s starting rotation is strong, but more depth is always needed for a tough Big Ten schedule.

Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion.

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Notre Dame receiver target Micah Gilbert announces commitment date

Here’s hoping the crystal ball isn’t lying.

[autotag]Cam Williams[/autotag] is one of the biggest receiver recruits Notre Dame has landed in recent years. But so far, he’s the Irish’s only pure receiver commit in the the 2024 recruiting class. That might change next week as receiver target Micah Gilbert has announced May 2 as the day he will make his college decision. The announcement will take place live on the 247Sports YouTube channel.

All signs point to Gilbert a Charlotte, North Carolina native, picking Notre Dame after he was recruited by [autotag]Gerad Parker[/autotag] and [autotag]Chansi Stuckey[/autotag]. Duke and North Carolina figure to be the biggest threat to the Irish, though that also could be because he’s from Charlotte. The other schools in the mix for the four-star recruit are South Carolina, Michigan, Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech.

Gilbert would be a perfect complimentary piece to Williams, and here’s hoping he feels the same way. We all will find out the answer to that question really soon.

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Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame to visit three top-10 2025 Indiana recruits

Hope at least one of them ends up with the Irish.

When Micah Shrewsberry took over as Notre Dame coach, he vowed to heavily recruit within Indiana. After all, that’s where he’s from and where Notre Dame is located. He’s done well with that so far with five players from the Hoosier State on this past season’s team, including ACC Rookie of the Year [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag].

Shrewsberry isn’t satisfied with his current number of Indiana players though. That’s why this week, he’s hosting visits with three recruits from the state, all of which rank in the top 10 of its 2025 class according to 247Sports. One tweet after another from multiple accounts confirms this:

For those keeping score at home, that’s one forward and two guards the Irish are looking to land. As you can see from these tweets though, they already are have some stiff competition in other programs. Virginia Tech seems particularly in on Mullins. Good luck to Shreswsberry and his staff with these meetings.

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Former Notre Dame women’s basketball star named head coach in ACC

All the best to Megan…except when she takes on the Irish

Former Notre Dame women’s basketball standout Megan Duffy has been on the coaching climb since her playing career came to an end. That climb has taken her Virginia Tech where she’ll be the new head coach.

Duffy heads to Blacksburg after spending the last five seasons at Marquette. She guided the Golden Eagles to a 110-46 overall record and appearances in the NCAA Tournament each of the last two seasons.

“I am ecstatic to join Virginia Tech Athletics as the leader of the women’s program,” Duffy said Wednesday morning. “The opportunity to continue the winning tradition with Hokie Nation and to be a part of the passionate, savvy Blacksburg community makes this a dream job for me.” – Megan Duffy

Previous to Marquette, Duffy was the head coach at Miami (Ohio) for two seasons, helping them to a 44-20 overall mark.

Duffy was the leading scorer on the 2005-06 Notre Dame team, putting up 15.6 points per game.  She was on four Fighting Irish teams that made the NCAA Tournament, a pair of which made the Sweet 16.

Duffy played three seasons in the WNBA before getting her coaching start at St. John’s. She also had assistant stops at George Washington and Michigan before landing the Miami (Ohio) job.

ACC men’s basketball leaders as of March 17

No Notre Dame players.

The NCAA Tournament officially is here with five ACC teams among those seeking a national championship. The ACC particularly drew attention from the rest of the country after No. 10 seed NC State won the conference tournament for the first time since 1987. Strangely, no one on the Wolfpack concluded the ACC season as a leader in any of the major statistical categories. Some are going to March Madness though, and here they are:

Can Rutgers football slow down Virginia Tech’s offensive momentum in 2024?

On September 21, Rutgers football will travel to Blacksburg, Virginia to slow down Virginia Tech’s creative and explosive offense.

For Rutgers football, their Week 3 match-up at Virginia Tech is likely to be a make-or-break game for their season. A win at the Hokies, much like this past year, and Rutgers has the chance to be bowl-eligible. But there is some hype around Virginia Tech’s football team heading into 2024 with the Hokies returning several key pieces on their offense from last season.

Virginia Tech’s quarterback Kyron Drones, running back Bhayshul Tuten, and wide receivers Ali Jennings, Da’Quan Felton, Stephen Gosnell, and Jaylin Lane will all return in 2024. This is quite an array of offensive talent.

Athlon Sports recently placed Virginia Tech as sixth in their ACC Power Rankings. They hyped up the offense in their latest power rankings update:

“Can the Hokies build off last season’s strong finish? This unit averaged 33.5 points a game in November – largely fueled by the emergence of quarterback Kyron Drones – and posted 41 in the bowl victory over Tulane.”

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The Scarlet Knights and the Hokies faced off last season with Rutgers defeating Virginia Tech 35-16. Rutgers’ 2023 victory was the first time since 1992 that the Scarlet Knights defeated the Hokies, breaking a 12-game skid in the series.

Drones recorded 84 yards on 22 attempts, averaging 3.4 yards per carry in his first collegiate start. The redshirt junior added 19 completions on 32 attempts for 190 yards with one touchdown and an interception in a losing effort.

The Scarlet Knights will try to make it consecutive winning seasons as they prepare to face a creative and explosive Virginia Tech offense. Rutgers finished the 2023 season as the No. 7 ranked defense within the Big Ten Conference and with many key pieces returning the Scarlet Knights’ defense will continue to stay strong in 2024.

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Notre Dame moves up to No. 3 seed in latest ESPN bracketology

You want want to start making plans to be at Purcell Pavilion in a couple of weeks.

Notre Dame has become impossible to ignore during its seven-game winning streak late in the season. Because of it, all signs point to the Irish hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament as a top-four seed. Now, simply getting to the ACC Tournament championship game appears to have helped them even more.

ESPN’s Charlie Creme updated his bracketology before the title game and bumped the Irish up to a No. 3 seed. The move was noticeable enough that Creme devoted his paragraph at the top of his bracket to them:

“Notre Dame looks like the best team in the ACC and has reached the championship game of the ACC tournament. With wins over Louisville and Virginia Tech in Greensboro, Notre Dame has jumped to a No. 3 seed. The Irish were just outside looking in during the NCAA tournament selection committee’s two reveals of the top 16 seeds. But now, they’ve won seven in a row since losing to NC State – their opponent in Sunday’s ACC tournament title game. Notre Dame was the biggest mover on a Saturday that saw most of the remaining favorites win and hold their spots.”

For what it’s worth, Her Hoop Stats projected the Irish as a fourth seed in the update it published before the Irish won their semifinal game. Regardless, it would be a shocker at this point if the Irish aren’t an NCAA Tournament host. In that case, there needs to be a serious overhaul of the selection process. Hopefully, that discussion won’t be necessary in a week’s time.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame falls short in regular-season finale vs. Virginia Tech

The Irish made it interesting until the end.

After being crushed by North Carolina in its last game, Notre Dame hoped for a better showing at Virginia Tech to close the regular season. That was the case, and the possibility existed that the Irish might steal a second game from the Hokies this season. That wasn’t the case with the Irish losing, 82-76.

While the Irish (12-19, 7-13) never led in the second half, they kept the Hokies (18-13, 10-10) on their toes until the final minute, never trailing by more than seven after halftime. It wasn’t until a layup, steal and then another layup by Sean Padulla in the final minute to put the Hokies up six that this game essentially was decided.

Although [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] brought the Irish within three with a layup and free throw after that, little time remained, and the Hokies only had to make their free throws to with the Irish forced to foul, which they did.

A few things could have made this game turn out differently. The Hokies held a considerable 15-5 advantage in offensive rebounds and used that to outscore the Irish in second-chance opportunities, 17-8. They also blocked six shots while the Irish got only one of those from [autotag]Carey Booth[/autotag]. It was a hard lesson to be learned for sure.

Pedulla led all scorers with 28 points. MJ Collins had the best all-around game with 15 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals. Off the bench, Tyler Nickel scored 15 points.

Burton scored 24 points, giving him 535 for the year and breaking [autotag]Troy Murphy[/autotag]’s Notre Dame freshman scoring record of 519. [autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] scored 13 points, which included making all five of his free throws, and grabbed six rebounds. [autotag]Julian Roper II[/autotag] scored 11 off the bench, and [autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag] added 10.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89