Though the new college basketball season is still over two months away, the Virginia men’s basketball coaching staff is entering a very busy portion of the calendar, as we are nearing the end of the recruiting cycle for the high school class of 2025 and getting into the peak of official visit season.

UVA is in the running for several premier recruiting targets in the class of 2025 and is hosting five of those prospects for official visits over the next month. That stretch of visitors began this past weekend, when four-star point guard Keyshuan Tillery took his official visit to Virginia.

Tillery posted on Instagram to recap the visit, including several pictures of himself in a home UVA men’s basketball jersey and a couple of pictures of himself joined by Virginia staff members Chase Coleman, Ronnie Wideman, Ron Sanchez, Orlando Vandross, and Isaiah Wilkins.

Tillery, a 6’1″ point guard from New Hampton, New Hampshire, is also scheduled to take official visits to Wake Forest, Cincinnati, Ohio State, and Villanova over the next several weeks. He is ranked No. 49 overall in the ESPN Top 100 for the class of 2025 and is the No. 71 overall prospect according to 247Sports, which also has Tillery rated as the No. 10 point guard in the country and the No. 2 recruit in the state of New Hampshire.

Virginia’s other official visitors are coming in pairs. Charlottesville point guard Chance Mallory and five-star forward Nate Ament are scheduled to visit on the weekend of September 13th, the same weekend that the UVA football team will host Maryland in a Saturday night primetime matchup. On the weekend of September 27th, the Cavaliers will host four-star point guard JJ Mandaquit and four-star power forward London Jemison.

Virginia also made the cut lists for four-star small forward Cam Ward (Washington, D.C.), four-star combo guard Derek Dixon (Washington, D.C.), four-star power forward Tre Singleton (Jeffersonville, IN), and four-star power forward Marcus Jackson (Richmond, VA).

Derek Dixon already came on an official visit to Virginia in April and multiple other unofficial visits and should announce his decision by the end of the month. No official visits to UVA have been scheduled for Tre Singleton or Cam Ward, though Ward did come on an unofficial visit over the summer. Marcus Jackson was offered late and UVA made his cut list, but there has been no reported official visit scheduled yet.

Virginia has two open scholarship spots for the 2025-2026 season.

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It’s been a tough 48 hours for the Virginia Tech football team and head coach Brent Pry. On Saturday, the Hokies lost a heartbreaker in overtime to the Vanderbilt Commodores. The result was disappointing, considering the hype and excitement that has followed the Hokies throughout the offseason.

On Monday, Pry and the Hokies received more bad news. Four-star wide receiver Matthew Outten, who initially committed to Virginia Tech earlier this summer, flipped his commitment to Penn State. The Norcom High School (Portsmouth, Va.) product was one of the three four-star wide receivers committed to Tech in the 2025 recruiting class.

It’s easy for fans to think that losing to Vandy while Penn State dominated West Virginia helped flip this commitment to the Nittany Lions, but PSU never stopped working on Outten. Pry’s former boss, James Franklin, has been working on Outten since June and was finally successful.

I guess Outten wasn’t “1000% committed” after all, as he said on X after his commitment to the Hokies.

You can’t blame Outten for choosing Penn State over Virginia Tech right now. The schools are at different places right now. Last weekend’s results likely played no part in his change of mind.

It’s a bad look for the Hokies: Another top prospect from inside Virginia choosing to leave the state. Outten is a terrific prospect. If there is any silver lining in losing Outten’s commitment, the Hokies still have two four-stars (Micah Matthews and Snoop Peterkin) committed. Don’t forget, the Hokies also have a couple of terrific freshmen receivers currently on the team, Brodie Adams and Chanz Wiggins. It still stings, though.

The Hokies look to get back on track when they host Marshall this weekend.

After their poor showing in Nashville this past Saturday, falling to Vanderbilt 34-27 in overtime, Virginia Tech finds themselves in a tough spot that no team wants to be in. The season is as real as it gets now, and no longer can the Hokies hide from the hype of the offseason. Brent Pry and Co. have a real task to come out swinging in their week two matchup against Marshall, with their home season opener coming up this Saturday.

So what are the big storylines heading into Saturday’s matchup?

1. Can Virginia Tech brush off their negative week one performance?

After being 13.5 favorites against Vanderbilt this past Saturday, the Hokies add yet another disappointing loss to their resume of the last few years. With their week two matchup against Marshall looming, Hokie fans can think back to their previous last year’s contest, where Marshall ran whenever and wherever they wanted. The bottom line is, for Virginia Tech to have any hope of competing for anything this season, they have to win their home opener this weekend and do it convincingly.

2. Can Virginia Tech figure out their rush defense?

A big part of the Hokies’ failures against the Commodores was their inability to stop the run, specifically QB Diego Pavia. Now, Marshall doesn’t run the same style of offense as Vanderbilt and doesn’t have a running quarterback per se. They have a guy named A.J. Turner who rushed for 119 of Marshall’s 259 yards in their 45-3 win over Stony Brook. We know that Tech struggled against the run last year as well against Marshall, and they will be tested once again this Saturday.

3. Can Virginia Tech establish their run game?

Let’s flip sides for this last one and talk about Virginia Tech’s rushing abilities. Virginia Tech possesses ample rushing talent to accomplish the task, yet they managed only 75 yards on 30 carries last week. Nothing was really working on that side of the ball, and Kyron Drones was forced into lots of check-downs.

The Hokies have to find a way to get their rushing attack going this upcoming week, which will not only benefit the running backs but will also instill confidence in the passing game.