BLACKSBURG, Va. – As basketball season approaches, Virginia Tech is ready to move forward after an offseason that saw many programs experience significant roster changes due to the transfer portal. Head Coach Mike Young, now entering his 39th year of coaching and sixth season in Blacksburg, is optimistic about the Hokies’ potential despite the turnover.

Virginia Tech returns five players from last season, including Mylyjael Poteat, who has dropped 20 pounds to increase his effectiveness on the court. Coach Young is confident that the Hokies’ 10 newcomers will provide depth and make the team a stronger force on the boards. However, building team chemistry has been a major focus during the early stages of practice.

“We’ve done a lot more teaching through the summer and our first five practices than we’ve done in quite some time,” said Young. “Really truly stripping it back to the shell and building it again, and that part of it has been a lot of fun through five practices.”

Poteat emphasized the importance of the team staying focused and learning from last year’s challenges.

“Definitely as a collective, we have to lock in a lot better than last year. That’s what I’ve tried to relay to the guys. There were definitely moments from last year that took us over the deep end, so I’m going to try and keep everybody on the same page this year,” Poteat explained.

Among the key transfers for the Hokies are Tobi Lawal from VCU, senior Hysier Miller from Temple, and redshirt sophomore Jaden Schutt from Duke. With new talent and a renewed focus, Virginia Tech aims to make an impact this season.

The Hokies will tip off the season on November 4th against Delaware State.

Emergency officials are still assessing the full extent of the damage to southwest Virginia from tropical storm Helene. Many communities are without water and power, and residents evacuated across seven counties.

83-year-old Elizabeth King has lived along the New River in Wythe County most of her life, one of the areas most impacted by last week’s flooding.

Her husband is buried in a water-proof casket beside the home they shared on the bank of the river for decades. She says she didn’t want to leave, but her daughters made her.

She sits on her daughter Kathy’s couch, holding her small brown dog, Bandit, with tears in her eyes.

“Everything’s gone,” King said.

“What I tell you? It’s just memories,” said her daughter Kathy King. “Our main concern was you.”

“I know,” said King, nodding.

A few miles away, her home stands surrounded by mud. High water pushed her wooden front porch away from the house. A peach tree her husband planted is broken. Inside the house, everything is damaged.

Her husband’s grave, however, is still intact, and her daughter Kathy says she’s grateful the water didn’t take him away. Plastic flowers still stick in the mud surrounding his grave.

“We promised our daddy on his dying bed we’d take care of her, and that’s what we intend to do,” King said.

“Yes. That was his biggest fear,” said her sister, Susan Lane.

“Her being took care of,” King said.

“Them two were like two peas in a pod,” Lane said.

They’re working to find out if their mother’s home insurance will help her rebuild. For now, she is staying with them.

Downriver a few miles in Pulaski County, dozens of people are starting the long process of clearing out mud and trash from their homes.

Many here in the community of Allisonia couldn’t drive down this road to their homes until Sunday, when the water began to recede.

Motorcycles, boats, clothes, even a mobile home were scattered in the road and yards when the water went down.

A friend hugs Brian Sale, as they stand in muck boots, overlooking the damage to Sale’s home.

Friends and family have come out to help Sale and his wife clean.

“I think I’m still in shock,” Sale said. “We watched all our stuff wash out of the house.” He added that he’s grateful that this community didn’t lose any lives, like in other areas further south.

“This is material stuff. It can be fixed,” Sale said.

Many of the people who were displaced have been staying these past few days with friends and family. Others have been sleeping wherever they can find a place to rest.

“A couple out of one of the houses, they actually slept in their van over here outside the fire department a couple of nights,” said Jamie Arnold, the volunteer fire chief in the Allisonia community.

Some temporary shelters have been set up in communities across southwest Virginia.

Local organizations are setting up donation centers to collect for flood victims here in the Commonwealth, and further south in the Carolinas. One drop off location is in Dublin, at the Pulaski County Free Store, where Heather Short is a volunteer.

“I know I’ve heard multiple times, people have just lost everything. We currently are accepting things like blankets, tents, sleeping bags, tarps,” Short said.

Water is another need across all of the impacted communities throughout the southeast.

Volunteers are also collecting donations in Giles County at the Newport Community Center and in Blacksburg.

State officials are still assessing the damage and trying to determine how many people in Virginia are in need of housing, as a result of last week’s storms.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.

Virginia Tech suffered their first conference loss of the year in a heart-breaking loss to Miami.

Although the Hokies may have lost that game, the performance made some analysts feel more optimistic about where Virginia Tech will land in the post-season.

Every week, ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach release their Bowl projections, predicting the new 12-team playoff format, and the 36-game slate of other Bowl games.

In this week’s predictions, Virginia Tech did not land in the College Football Playoff, but two other Bowl games against a group-of-five contender or a strong Power Four team.

Kyle Bonagura predicted the Hokies will land in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl–a bowl game between teams from ACC and AAC teams. Last year’s Wasabi Fenway Bowl featured a matchup between Boston College and SMU, and a matchup between Cincinnati and Louisville the year prior.

Their opponent in this prediction? The Memphis Tigers. The Tigers were a team heading into the season which seemed like a contender for the fifth conference champion spot in the College Football Playoff, but a 56-44 loss to Navy has probably derailed those dreams unless all of the other group-of-five champions fail to be undefeated.

Mark Schlabach went a different direction with his prediction, placing the Hokies in the Birmingham Bowl against TCU. Although this would be an exciting matchup, it’s very unlikely. The Birmingham Bowl currently has tie-ins with the SEC and the AAC, with the C-USA and the MAC serving as substitutes if the SEC and the AAC cannot fufill their commitments. In the rare occasion that all four of these conferences cannot serve a team to the game, that would be the only way TCU and Virginia Tech would play in this game against each other.

In that scenario, that would be extremely fun matchup. Virginia Tech has an explosive offense, evidenced by their performance against Miami last week, and TCU has one of the most explosive offenses in the country, evidenced by their average of 42.2 points per game scored on offense.