Less than a week away from opening the season against Towson in Cassell Coliseum, Megan Duffy feels good about her Virginia Tech team but knows there’s still a long way to go.
“Some coaches are like, ‘My defense is ahead of my offense,’ or ‘My offense is ahead of my defense.’ I don’t really look at that too much,” Duffy said in Tuesday’s press conference. “We want to equally have them both ready to go, and while I still think we’re a work in progress because it’s still October, I’m encouraged by the mindset of having a little more depth from the guard position and from our forward position to move some bodies in and out that could help defensive rebounding as well.”
The Hokies are still meshing their six returners and seven newcomers together, and two closed-door scrimmages — one home, one away — helped speed up that process. It provided Duffy and her staff opportunities to experiment and tinker, with the ultimate goal of improving team chemistry and getting film to study and review.
“I felt the value of it was tremendous,” Duffy said. “I got to try different lineups out, different quarters, test different things within our offense. Defensively, we talked a lot about from summer to now just where our defensive rebounding has to be, and then when you get it on film, it’s really good to put that light on mentality to kind of back up what you’ve been talking about, so it’s so valuable. Winning and losing doesn’t matter in those moments. It’s about finding that chemistry. …
“We did a lot of things over the last month or so to try and simulate a game, even going on the road for a scrimmage, practice and being in the hotel and watching film, pregame rituals, those type of things that just get the players comfortable, especially if they’re a freshman or coming from a new school.”
Tech has a slightly undersized frontcourt, with Kilah Freelon (6-1) and Carys Baker (6-2) expected to start, Kayl Petersen (6-0) providing a Swiss Army knife skill set and 6-foot-3 freshmen Amani Jenkins and Aniya Trent coming off the bench. Duffy doesn’t appear to be worried that it’s not a taller group, though.
“My teams historically have been as tough as we can get, as tough as nails,” Duffy said. “... It’s about the mentality you show up with on the court. The additions of Aniya Trent, Amani Jenkins and Kilah Freelon are three very different players in that forward position, but all of them are going to be able to add some huge things for us, whether that’s a big offensive rebound, whether that’s blocking a shot, physical play.”
At the end of the day, when the Hokies get to ACC play, it’ll come down to the constant chess match between them and the opposing coaching staff and their system and talent.
“You have to really kind of play that chess match with other teams of like the styles that are going to be some of the best teams in the league,” Duffy said. “How do you counter that? How do you supersede that? And I’m so I’m really, really happy with where we are with that.”
Over the offseason, she mentioned the need for improvement on the defensive end and on the glass, and that’s shown up in the preseason. Having returners who understand the expectations and what’s being asked of them is helpful.
“I think we’ve seen a lot of improvement with our defense,” Duffy said. “We ripped apart that from last year, just whether we could look at something statistically, our one-on-one defense, our ability to get in gaps better, our ability to fight through screens better. There’s a physicality to it, there’s a mindset about it, and then I think there’s experience.
“When you have players who have been in these situations, so much of defense is just even getting your IQ better of knowing, ‘OK, I’ve got to be able to guard this type of player one minute and another type of player the second quarter,’ so just throwing that young team into that last year, hopefully our veterans will prove as games start next week that they’re ready for that challenge a little bit better, and then getting new players acclimated to how we want to do things.”
Tech’s still laying its foundation for the season, an identity that’s crucial to a team’s success, but the goal remains the same.
“We know we want to win. We know we want to be successful,” Duffy said. “We know we want to be at the top echelon of the ACC, and I think we’re [on] a really good path to be there and get there, and everything else outside of that is just locking into the small details every day.”
Kitley’s Role
Last week, the Hokies announced that Elizabeth Kitley, the greatest player in program history, is returning to Blacksburg to join Duffy’s staff as an assistant to the head coach.During the WNBA offseason, which runs from November to April (and lines up well with the college basketball season), Kitley will rehab and continue to work on her game while helping out Tech women’s basketball.
When Duffy got wind that Kitley wasn’t going overseas to play during this window, they discussed potential opportunities. She’ll work alongside Duffy and general manager Stephen Fishler in the NIL and revenue-sharing realm, will help with community outreach and fundraising, will be a sounding board for the current team and also call games on ACC Network Extra and the Virginia Tech Sports Network.
“That will be fun for her, to put her hands in and see what she likes,” Duffy said, “but ultimately, the fact that she’s going to be a presence here around our players. I’m so big on making sure our players are surrounded by the best people around, whether that’s a coaching staff member, whether that’s a general manager, our athletic trainer, our strength & conditioning coach, and to put Liz in that mix, just to have her knowledge, just being able to ask somebody how their day is and just have real-life experiences of what she went through, good and bad … is going to be awesome.”
Kitley officially started with the Hokies on Tuesday and was a guest on the Megan Duffy Show alongside Evan Hughes. When Duffy informed her players that Kitley was joining the program last week, their reactions were all over the place, from true freshmen who have idolized her to the veterans who were her teammates.
“It was the joy of like, ‘Man, this is a huge boost for our women’s program,” Duffy said. “The fact that we can steal her for a little bit here is amazing.”
Sears Out For Season
On Tuesday’s Tech Sideline Podcast episode with Duffy, she broke the news that freshman guard Kate Sears will miss the 2025-26 season with a foot injury that required surgery.
ESPN’s No. 82 recruit in the class of 2025, Sears (5-9) was a four-star prospect out of Boone, N.C., who starred at Watauga High School and was an all-state selection and a three-time conference player of the year.
Similar to Suffren, who missed the second half of last season with a shoulder injury that required surgery, Sears will have the opportunity to be an extension of Duffy in the locker room while she rehabs.
“Her initiation will be a little bit delayed, not denied, as I say,” Duffy said on the podcast. “... She’s an incredible competitor, she wants to be on the court and in practice every second, and obviously, there was a little bit of a detour with that, but I think the thing we learned from Samyha here last year is she gets to be that continuation of me off the court now. Watching film differently, things will slow down for her a little bit. …
“Thankfully, we have Carleigh and Mackie and Samyha, a good group of guards who can kind of plug that for her, but she’s going to learn a lot. We’re definitely devastated for her and her family, but at the same time, they’ve handled it so well, and she’s going to have an incredible career when it’s all said and done.”
New Drip
Last season, the Hokies wore six different jerseys:- Maroon with script “Hokies” in orange
- Maroon with block “Hokies” in white
- White with block “Hokies” in maroon
- White with script “Hokies” in maroon
- Grey with block “Hokies” in maroon
- Black with white “VT”
“All the kids, if they could wear 10 different uniforms, and all the style of it, they would be so happy,” Duffy joked on the podcast. “... They’re awesome. The girls will look good, so I always say, ‘If you’re going to look good, you better play good.’ But yeah, it’s fun. They love that part of it, they love the media attention.”
Duffy has a say in the initial design of what the jerseys look like, but once they arrive, the team decides which ones to wear each game. “I got no opinion on that,” she said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I7uls0zgc4&t=313s