Fresh off its season-opening victory over Charleston Southern, Virginia Tech men’s basketball heads up to Uncasville, Conn., to face Providence in the Hall of Fame Series on Saturday.
It’s a 4 p.m. ET tip from the Mohegan Sun Arena (9,323 capacity) and will be televised on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service. John Fanta and Tim Welsh are on the call.
It’s the sixth straight season the Hokies have participated in a Basketball Hall of Fame event:
- 2020-21: Hall of Fame Tip-Off — Uncasville, Conn.
- 2021-22: Hall of Fame Shootout — Charlotte, N.C.
- 2022-23: Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational — Brooklyn, N.Y.
- 2023-24: Hall of Fame Series — Charlotte, N.C.
- 2024-25: Hall of Fame Series — Baltimore, Md.
- 2025-26: Hall of Fame Series — Uncasville, Conn.
The last time Tech played at Mohegan Sun, it upset No. 3 Villanova and Jay Wright in overtime in 2020 — an emphatic start to a bumpy COVID season that culminated in an NCAA Tournament appearance in Indianapolis.
This is one of four neutral-site contests for the Hokies in November, joining their three-game trip to the Bahamas for Battle 4 Atlantis. They’ve got home games vs. Saint Joseph’s, Charlotte and Bryant in between.
Here’s a glimpse at the Friars:
Providence
Record: 1-0
KenPom ranking: 63 (VT: 66)
BartTorvik rating: 60 (VT: 70)
Coach: Kim English — 3rd season (34-34, .500); 5th overall (68-63, .519)
Last season: 12-20 (6-14 Big East). After a 9-9 record through their first 18 games of the year, the Friars finished 3-11, which included a six-game losing streak to end the season.
Series history: 10th meeting; VT leads 5-4. The former Big East counterparts played seven times from 2000-04 and the Hokies won three of the final four games, including the last clash on Feb. 4, 2004. They first met in 1982 in the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Last game’s starting five — Monday vs. Holy Cross
Jason Edwards (6-1, 180, Gr.): 11 points per game
Corey Floyd Jr. (6-4, 208, r-Sr.): 12 ppg
Jaylin Sellers (6-5, 205, Gr.): 12 ppg
Duncan Powell (6-8, 240, Gr.): 6 ppg
Oswin Erhunmwunse* (6-10, 235, So.): 4 ppg, 8 rebounds per game
* — Oswin Erhunmwunse is pronounced OSS-win AIR-rune-SAY
What to know
Providence and Virginia Tech are in eerily similar positions. Both struggled last season — they had a combined 25-39 record — and turned over their roster by bringing in a slew of fresh faces.
Ten of the Hokies’ 14 players are new. It’s almost the same for the Friars, who return just three key contributors from last year’s team and added six transfers, plus two European imports.
They plucked two talents from the ACC in Powell (Georgia Tech) and Daquan Davis (Florida State) to accompany Edwards (Vanderbilt), Sellers (UCF), Floyd Jr. (UConn) and Cole Hargrove (Drexel). They also hit the jackpot in Stefan Vaaks, a 6-foot-7 guard from Estonia who dropped a team-high 19 points in the season-opening 89-79 win over Holy Cross.
Providence also has a talented true freshman in Jamier Jones, a 6-foot-6 forward from Oak Ridge High School in Florida — the same place that produced Hokies forward Tyler Johnson. He went off for 16 points in the opener, and he and Vaaks were the school’s first pair of freshmen to score 16-plus in a game since 2006.
VAAKS from DEEP 3⃣ pic.twitter.com/CflGi3L7lw
— Providence MBB (@PCFriarsmbb) November 4, 2025
Sound familiar? Tech has three new transfers — from Delaware, UNLV and West Virginia — plus a Greek and a German, along with a few freshmen. ‘Tis the new age of college basketball.
The Friars appear to be poised for a bounce-back season under English, who was a combined 41-27 between George Mason and Providence from 2022-24 but struggled last year.
Vaaks, who will likely come off the bench, averaged 15 points in the Latvia-Estonia league last season and represented his country at the European Championships. He’s not as highly touted as Tech’s Neoklis Avdalas, but he’s got an impressive résumé and is a creative player. He was 5-for-9 from the field and 3-for-7 from long range in the opener.
Jones is a top-50 recruit who also came off the bench against the Crusaders and was a perfect 7-for-7 while adding five rebounds.
The Hokies are familiar with some of the Friars’ veterans. Here’s a breakdown of their performances last year against Tech:
- Edwards (Vandy): Game-high 19 points in win; 5-for-10 FG, 3-for-7 3FG
- Powell (GT): Game-high 23 points in win; 7-for-11 FG, 3-for-4 3FG, 6 reb
- Davis (FSU): 8 points in loss; 3-for-6 FG, 2-for-2 3FG, 4 ast, 3 reb, 5 TOs
Other important Providence players include Sellers and Floyd Jr., who each had 12 points vs. Holy Cross, and Ryan Mela (6-7, 205, So.), one of the returners who had nine points and six rebounds.
This is a group that rebounds by committee. It starts inside with Erhunmwunse, the big man who had eight boards in the opener. He had the 29th-best offensive rebound rate in the country last season at 14.3 percent, per Ken Pomeroy, and will post a steep challenge for the Hokies on the glass. He’s also a block machine and had four on Monday.
Hargrove also had six rebounds against the Crusaders while Powell and Jones had five apiece. English played 10 guys, eight of whom corralled multiple boards. Tech has to be disciplined in that area.
The good news is that on paper, rebounding is one of the Hokies’ strengths. They finished plus-13 against the Buccaneers, led by a combined 25 boards from Amani Hansberry and Tobi Lawal. Johnson, Jailen Bedford and Christian Gurdak all had five-plus, too, and Antonio Dorn will also be available in this game.
Moreover, they’re expected to be a better defensive team this season. They couldn’t stop a nosebleed last year with the 166th-ranked defense in adjusted efficiency. Though it was a bad Charleston Southern team, they allowed just 32 percent shooting on Monday, including a 25 percent clip in the second half.
Tempo will be crucial. Providence likes to get out and run, so Virginia Tech has to be mindful of that transition offense, especially in situations where it crashes the offensive glass.
Keeping the Friars off the foul line is important, too. They were 285th in free throw attempts per field goal attempt last year (29.6%) and were 304th in free throw percentage (68.6%), but they were 20-for-27 from the stripe in the opener (74.1%). For comparison, the Hokies were 19-for-27 (70.4%).
This is a pretty even matchup. I’d give the edge to Mike Young’s coaching abilities, and I think Tech has the more talented roster, but there’s so much unknown this early in the season.
Keep in mind the importance of this early non-conference battle in terms of metrics. The ACC needs some November victories to boost its teams’ NET rankings, and this is one of those opportunities. Strength of schedule is crucial, and though no one knows how the Hokies and Friars will fare this year, this result against another power conference foe will have a season-long impact, regardless of the outcome.
That’s a lot of pressure to place on Tech’s second game of the season, but it has to seize every chance that comes its way if it wants to have a good résumé come March. Outside of Battle 4 Atlantis and its ACC/SEC Challenge game at South Carolina, this is its best opportunity for a marquee non-conference win.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQPnwJifvto&t=1s