On Tuesday, the Cayman Islands Classic announced the field for its inaugural tournament in 2023-24, which includes Virginia Tech.
National champions LSU, UConn, UCLA and the Hokies headline the event, which will be held from Nov. 24-25 at John Gray Gymnasium in George Town, Cayman Islands. WNIT champions Kansas, Niagara, Tulane and Virginia round out the eight-team field.
The 2022-23 season came to an end for Tech in the Final Four vs. LSU, the eventual national champion. There's a potential rematch of those two sides in the Cayman Islands Classic, along with the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge that starts in the fall.
Overall, the event has a solid field. Though UConn fell to Ohio State in the Sweet 16 in Seattle, it remains college basketball's traditional powerhouse. UCLA's season ended at the hands of South Carolina in the Sweet 16.
UVa, a familiar foe for the Hokies, has already improved this offseason, adding Arizona transfer Paris Clark. The Cavaliers have four former McDonald's All-Americans on their 2023-24 roster. Kansas, meanwhile, won the 2023 WNIT and made an NCAA tournament appearance in 2022. Tulane and Niagara both participated in this season's WNIT, too.
Here's an in-depth breakdown of the Cayman Islands Classic field:
Tech had a record year, finishing with a 31-5 record (14-4 ACC), an ACC Championship, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and the school's first Final Four berth. A handful of pieces are gone — Kayana Traylor and Taylor Soule were selected in the WNBA Draft on Monday night — but with Elizabeth Kitley and Cayla King returning, the Hokies' core remains intact. Kenny Brooks also has a talented recruiting class — four top-100 prospects — arriving in Blacksburg over the summer.
Brooks has enjoyed giving his program good opportunities to prove itself in the non-conference. Sometimes that coincides with trips to the Caribbean, like Puerto Rico (2019 and 2021) or The Bahamas (2022). November will be the first time Virginia Tech has played in the Cayman Islands and the ninth Caribbean trip in school history.
"I think we've done a really good job with our schedule in the last couple of years," Brooks said on April 7. "... Last year, we played defending SEC Champion Kentucky, we played Missouri, we played Tennessee, we played Nebraska through the [ACC/Big Ten] challenge. … Last year taught us a lot, too, that you're not just going to plug and play. You're not just going to say, 'Hey, we got these kids and all of a sudden, they're going to gel.'
"You need to use that time to be able to gel a little bit, so [our 2023-24 non-conference schedule will] be a mixture of us playing some tough teams but also getting an opportunity for … a group of young kids that need that desperately."