Kenny Brooks was in a happy place — HomeGoods, a store where he’s received plenty of good basketball news in the past — when Elizabeth Kitley announced she was returning to Virginia Tech for a fifth season on Sunday. Cayla King made her decision the next morning.
In the span of 20 hours, the core of Kitley, King and Georgia Amoore, which helped the Hokies to their greatest season in program history, was back together.
“When we talked at the beginning of the year, I talked with both of them, I said, ‘Don’t stress it,’” Tech head coach Kenny Brooks said of his conversations with Kitley and King. “'I want you to go out and enjoy every aspect of the season, and we’ll talk when time’s appropriate.’ And as a parent, everyone knows that if you just sit in front of your kids and just listen to them, they’ll tell you everything.
“Throughout the year, I could hear their voices, kind of which way they were leaning. Never put any pressure on them, what they were going to do. … Very happy that they’re back. … They are my foundation, they’ve been my foundation, and for them to come in and be able to mentor the next group of kids who I think will be the next foundation for us, it’s tremendous.”
For Kitley and King, who have played together for eight consecutive seasons dating back to high school, it felt like the original recruiting process all over again. In 2017, King committed to the Hokies in August; Kitley followed suit in December. But the choices were independent of the other.
Brooks obviously wanted both in Blacksburg, but if he could get one, it’d be a celebration on its own. It just so happened that they both picked Tech. This time around, it was more of the same.
“We both were making the best decision for ourselves,” King said. “And it just ended up that we were both coming back.”
Neither wanted to pass up the opportunity. King said if she didn’t snatch it up, she’d likely look back at it and think, ‘What If?’ Kitley praised her support system and said she wouldn’t be satisfied if she left. And they both wanted to play in front of the Hokie faithful for one more season, especially with the bad taste that the Final Four loss to LSU left in their mouths.
“Just to be able to have the opportunity to be somewhere for another year where I know that I’m loved and appreciated,” Kitley said, mentioning that her sister, Raven, would’ve been very upset if she didn’t return. “I think during different times in the season, I leaned towards different things. … Honestly, I just love it here. It’s a secure place for me where I know I can help out the program, and in turn it makes me a better person and a better player.”
With Kitley and King staying in the fold, Tech’s trajectory for next season is drastically different. There was a chance Amoore would be the only remaining piece. Instead, the Hokies return three starters from a Final Four team that won the ACC Championship.
Brooks knows all three can improve as individual players, too. In Dallas after the season ended, he said Amoore has another gear she can reach. King, who has WNBA potential as a 3-and-D player, missed the summer of 2022 while nursing the ankle injury she suffered in the ACC Tournament. Brooks said he’s very anxious to get back in the gym with her over the summer and add to her game.
Kitley, meanwhile, will be put in uncomfortable positions and challenged in new ways to increase her versatility. According to Brooks, point guard drills might be among the tests. She’s a capable shooter from 3-point range currently, but it’s not something she fancies. Brooks got feedback from WNBA folks about areas she — and King — can improve, which includes growing more confident and versatile as a shooter, a ball handler and a defender.
“I’m very critical of myself and aware of what I can be better at,” Kitley said. “I know that it would just benefit me to have another year with [Brooks] and another year here to work on those things to better my chances of being successful at the next level.”
ESPN’s “Way-Too-Early Top 25” has Virginia Tech at No. 14. That’s high for a squad that currently has just four scholarship players. But it also shows how much respect the national media has for Tech, even if it still has a ways to go to fill out its roster.
“We’re behind, so to speak, in the transfer portal,” Brooks said. “But I think our big flex is, ‘Sorry we haven’t called you, we’ve been in the Final Four.’ That kind of helps you recover and gain some ground.”
Kitley and King coming back for a fifth year changes the recruiting approach, however. While the Hokies already have four top-100 freshmen arriving in the summer — Brooks’ best class to date at Tech — they have to rebuild the roster around their core through the portal. As of early April, they have seven open scholarships.
Their targets? Players of the Taylor Soule and Kayana Traylor mold who just want to supplement what the Hokies already have.
“It’s always been a puzzle for us,” Brooks said. “I’m not saying that we’ve always hit, but we’ve hit pretty strong since the portal has come. What we do is we look for fit. We’re looking for a big guard to go on the other wing with Cayla. We’re looking for a post player that’s versatile, that can stretch the floor, that they won’t be able to collapse on her.
“We are looking for another post player that can be versatile, that can play some four and maybe some backup five, even though we have some really good freshmen that are coming in. You just don’t know what the freshmen are going to be because COVID has changed the game. … The teams you’re playing against, they’re old.”
Tech’s poised to do some damage in a stacked ACC, but it’ll have a large target on its back. It was in a similar spot at the beginning of this season after being picked second, which is where it finished in the regular season standings. Everyone’s going to give the reigning ACC Champions their best shot come 2023-24, though.
The talent in the league isn’t going anywhere either. 14 of this season’s top 15 scorers are slated to be back; North Carolina’s Kennedy Todd-Williams, who was 12th and transferred to Ole Miss, is the outlier. That includes Kitley (fourth) and Amoore (seventh), the best scoring duo in the conference.
“It drives us,” Brooks said of the high level of competition in the ACC. “It will drive me in the recruiting process, it will drive me when I’m thinking about stuff this summer. … Now we’re the champion, and … people want to knock us off.”