Virginia Tech heads to the ACC Tournament in Greensboro with a cloudy future after Elizabeth Kitley left Sunday’s game at Virginia with an injury. Her departure overshadowed the Hokies’ 80-75 loss in Charlottesville, their second straight.
Tech head coach Kenny Brooks didn’t have an update on his star after the defeat, nor less than 24 hours later on Monday’s media call.
“We don’t know anything yet,” Brooks said. “We’re just waiting and praying for good results.”
Tech, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, faces the winner of No. 8 seed North Carolina and No. 9 seed Miami on Friday at 1:30 p.m. ET. It swept all three meetings against those two sides this year, including a 74-62 win over the Tar Heels on senior day with ESPN’s College GameDay in attendance on Feb. 25.
The Hokies might have to do it without Kitley this time around, though. She’s only missed one game over the last two seasons out of precaution, a home win against Virginia on Jan. 5, 2023.
Two years ago, she was injured against North Carolina in the ACC Tournament — a game Tech won behind Georgia Amoore’s heroics — and missed the following game against NC State, but she bounced back with a 42-point performance in the NCAA Tournament against Florida Gulf Coast.
The vibes are different now, however. The injury felt very severe when it happened, and Brooks got choked up talking about her health after the game.
Yet, Brooks emphasized the importance of the Hokies sticking together. Whether or not Kitley is available, they’ve got a target on their backs because of their accomplishments over the last two campaigns. If she can’t go, others are going to have to try to fill that void.
"If that is the case, it has to be next person up because the games will still go on,” Brooks said. “We're still going to have the benefits of a great season so we're going to be able to continue it on.
"We can sit here, and if the case is she's not going to be able to play, we can feel sorry for ourselves and we can get our butts beat, or we can go out there and continue to play and fight like they did last night."
Tech played the final 15 minutes of the game in John Paul Jones Arena without Kitley and scored 34 of its 75 points (45%) in that stretch. Most of that was from Amoore, who put the team on her back. The All-American made eight of her 15 shots and scored 23 of her career-high 39 points during that span. Clara Strack chipped in six while Cayla King hit a 3-pointer and Carleigh Wenzel added a layup.
Previously, the spotlight was on Tech’s two-woman game with Amoore and Kitley. Just like when Amoore suffered a head injury in January at Duke, the other pieces became more critical than ever. If Kitley can’t go, it’ll be a similar situation.
How Tech handles the noise around her injury is another deal. As the days go by, more questions will be asked — nationally, not just around Virginia Tech — about Kitley’s status, and things could become clearer on Friday when the Hokies play in Greensboro.
Whether Brooks meant to or not, he was blunt in his answers surrounding her status. But the NCAA Tournament committee and others may try to pick things apart with a microscope to figure out if she’s really going to have a chance to play in the Big Dance.
Tech’s been quiet about injuries in the past — just look at Amoore’s knock earlier in the year — but this is sort of like walking a tightrope. In this case, if Kitley’s unavailable, the Hokies don’t want that to hurt their chances to host an NCAA regional or throw them under the bus in terms of seeding. Obviously, they’re not the same team without her.
Notre Dame gave a little bit of a blueprint of what the dialogue around an injury to a star this late in the year can look like.
All-American Olivia Miles went down in the final game of the 2022-23 regular season and the Irish played everything close to the vest while saying they thought she’d return for the NCAA Tournament. They still hosted as a No. 3 seed, and the day before they played Southern Utah in the first round, they announced she was done for the season. A year later, she’s still not returned to the floor.
Just ask Jordan Travis and Florida State football how much injuries are taken into account by the organizing committees. Virginia Tech men’s basketball fans might also remember how after missing a month-and-a-half in 2018-19, Justin Robinson announced he was cleared for the NCAA Tournament the morning of Selection Sunday, which helped the Hokies’ seeding.
In some cases, the less said about a similar situation might lead some to believe that it’s extremely severe, and while that could very well be true, Tech and Brooks have to balance their positioning for March at the same time, a tall and emotional task.